IN PICTURES: Inside ‘Sainsfreeze’ – Sainsbury’s pop-up freezer store

Today, Big 4 grocer Sainsbury’s opened its pop-up freezer store, offering free food to members of the public and educating them on the importance of reducing food waste.

Located at Box Park in Shoreditch, East London, the ‘Sainzfreeze’ concept allows shoppers to venture into the freezer unit and collect items to take home, many of which are the types of products most commonly thrown away by Brits.

Grocery Gazette went along to take a look into the newest initiative by the supermarket giant.

The pop-up shop, which first opened at 10am today (27 September) was welcomed with a queue of shoppers. Launched amid the cost-of-living crisis, the initiative also looks to help households battling with the pressures of rising food prices.

On arrival, each shopper is met by a Sainsbury’s representative and is given a QR code which, when scanned, directs each user to a page on Sainsburys.co.uk, featuring its ‘top ten tips’ on freezing food and preventing wastage.

Each shopper is also given a free Sainsbury’s ‘refridgabag’ to transport and store the frozen goods collected from within the store, in a bid make it accessible to residents both local to Shoreditch and from further afield.

Inside the store, shoppers can access a variety of frozen products including baked goods, fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat and fish, each assorted in corresponding sections.

Customers are able to take home two items which are stored in individual tubs or bagged packaging, which will be stocked up every time the shop stock levels are running low.

The store also features products frozen in more innovative ways such as its own-brand Greek Yoghurt, which has been frozen in slices with fruit, and wilted herbs mixed with oil or water and then frozen into ice cube trays to be used later in soups or stews.

Any surplus food not collected by the public during the pop-up shop’s opening times (10am to 6pm) on 27 and 28 September, will be donated to Sainsbury’s food redistribution charity partner FareShare to ensure no food goes to waste.

Sainsfreeze is part of a collaboration between Sainsbury’s and climate action NGO WRAP, furthering the retailer’s commitment to halving food waste by 2030. Sainsbury’s has sent zero waste to landfill since 2013 and recently announced the removal of date codes on 276 products.

Sainsbury’s director of corporate responsibility and sustainability Ruth Cranston said the grocer was launching Sainsfreeze to “help customers try and combat food waste and learn handy hints and top tips along the way”.

“Innovative freezing not only allows us to save food we would otherwise have thrown away, but also to buy reduced priced food close to its use-by date, saving even more money on the weekly grocery bill,” she added.

WRAP’s director of collaboration and change Catherine David also pointed out that UK households waste the equivalent of eight meals a week on average – that’s costing the average family nearly £800 per year.

“As well as costing money, food waste is having a big impact on the climate. If it were a country, food waste would have the third largest carbon footprint in the world, behind only the USA and China. At a time of rising food prices, tackling food waste at home is one way we can all make a difference and save money.”

WRAP’s research found that a third of people don’t use their freezer efficiently, with around 20% of consumers throwing frozen food away because it has laid dormant for too long.

“Initiatives like Sainsfreeze help people think about how to make the most of their freezer and ensure that food that we freeze then gets used safely,” David said.

The Sainsfreeze store can be found at The Green Space, Boxpark Shoreditch 2-10 Bethnal Green Rd, Hackney, London E1 6GY.