// Co-op teams up with Microsoft to help eradicate food waste via a new platform
// The Caboodle platform will launch next month across 2,500 Co-op stores
Co-op and Microsoft have teamed up to help reduce food wastage, launching a new technology platform Caboodle, which is set to save hundreds of thousands of tonnes of edible food from being thrown away
The new platform will allow supermarkets, cafés and restaurants to connect with community groups and volunteers to redistribute surplus food.
Caboodle is currently being tested out in Co-op’s food stores in Northern Ireland, Milton Keynes and London, and will go live next month across a further 2,500 food stores.
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It’s open to charities and community groups of all kinds, from food banks and family support networks to youth groups, schools and more.
The platform will also highlight volunteering opportunities through its online noticeboard and those who want to volunteer to help redistribute food will be able to enter their postcode to find a local group they’d like to work with.
Co-op interim CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq said: ‘The amount of good quality surplus food that’s not currently being redistributed is astounding.
‘We’re currently trialing caboodle in over 100 food stores and the results we’re seeing so far are incredible.
‘We’ll be rolling it out across our entire estate next month and hope that all other retailers and businesses within hospitality will see the benefit too.
Microsoft UK CEO Clare Barclay said: “One of the best things about Caboodle is not just the impact it will have, but also that it came from a chance conversation between a Microsoft employee and a Co-op store manager about how to stop good food going to waste.”
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