Iceland is extending its ‘mystery bag’ surplus food initiative with food redistributor Olio, in a bid to tackle food waste.

The pilot scheme launched in September, involving four Iceland stores and one Food Warehouse store, however, it is understood it will now be expanded to an additional five Iceland shops by the end of October, reported The Grocer.

The initiative features £2 ‘lucky dip’ mystery bags containing a range of Iceland groceries close to their ‘use-by-date’ and worth £10.

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The frozen food specialist’s shopfloor staff will pack the bags which are reserved for collection using the Olio app.

The extension of the trial comes as the next stage of the grocery retailer’s partnership with Olio, as it experiments with the ways it can make surplus food more accessible to customers.

The latest initiative also comes as 30 of the UK’s leading grocers and brands including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Innocent Drinks, Nestlé, and Princes call upon the government to introduce mandatory food waste reporting, in an aim to clampdown on how much edible food is thrown away in the UK.