Greene King saves over 1,000 carveries in food waste initiative

20-Mar-2019 - Last updated on 22-Mar-2019 at 10:32 GMT

Food initiative: Greene King claims it will save thousands of carveries from going to waste with the new app

Greene King has become the first pub company to join forces with Too Good To Go – an app designed to help businesses reduce food waste.

Following a successful trial in 19 pubs last year, the partnership will see all Greene King pubs and carveries – and Farmhouse Inns – get on board with the app in April, to coincide with the launch of its spring and summer menus.

The app, which is free to download and sign up to, allows customers to see a map that shows how many unsold meals are available at local pubs, bakeries and cafés. Users then select what they want, pay via the app and collect their meal within a certain time-frame.

Takeaway meal

Since Greene King’s trial began, it claims more than 1,000 carvery meals have been saved from being wasted. Each meal, which is served as a takeaway, contains a serving of meat, roast potatoes and vegetables in a recyclable container along with a pot of gravy.

Vance Fairman-Smith, supply chain director at Greene King, said the app is the perfect tool to combat food waste.

“Reducing our food waste is a responsibility we take very seriously,” explained Fairman-Smith.

“I am pleased to see how successful our trial has been with Too Good To Go and we are looking forward to more of our carveries being enjoyed at home.

“It’s a win-win because it offers customers a great value meal while reducing food waste.”

Food waste fight

Too Good To Go co-founder Jamie Crummie, revealed his delight about the partnership with Greene King and claims the app, which launched in 2016, has saved in excess of 480,000 meals so far, in a bid to end food waste globally.

“We are thrilled that Greene King has taken a definitive stand against food waste as our first pub chain on the Too Good To Go app,” Crummie exclaimed.

“With over 500 new customers visiting Greene King pubs during the trial alone, our partnership has demonstrated that fighting food waste makes not just environmental sense but good business sense too – for any type of food business.”

In recent years, Greene King’s fight against food waste has become ever evident after becoming the first pub company to pledge sending zero waste to landfill by 2020 and currently diverts 98.6% of its waste from landfill.

In August 2018, the pub chain introduced PLA (polylactic acid) straws – made from renewable sources – across 1,750 pubs and, thought to be a trade first, the scheme will remove 30m plastic straws from use every year.