Colorful illustration of various grocery items including a pineapple, bananas, grapes, strawberries, carrots, green peppers, a pumpkin, orange juice, and packaged foods like soup, pasta, tomatoes, squash, and hoops cereal, arranged on a white plate.

Working with suppliers:

We work with retailers, manufacturers, farmers and food producers from across the food industry and we make it as easy as possible for suppliers to work with us.

Here’s how!

For more details, get in touch with our Food team…

Justin at justin@breadandbutterthing.org

Hayley at hayley.mahon@breadandbutterthing.org

Rhona at rhona.yuille@breadandbutterthing.org

Or call them on 0333 004 0287

Own label permissions

We have own label permissions for manufacturers from a whole host of retailers:

The brands listed below have all authorised The Bread and Butter Thing with permission to redistribute their own-brand products without the need to remove branding or packaging, plus the authorisation to work with their manufacturing partners to collect from source any available edible surplus.

What you need to know!

Food, Glorious Food

We accept the following food product:

•        Ambient and produce past Best Before (working to Wrap guidelines).

•        Short dated chill and use by products (up to 24 hours before use).

•        Frozen product up to six months past its Best Before.

•        Farm and field: including outgrades, grade 2-3 produce, pitting and blemishes.

•        Factory: including bulk, WIP, mis-labelled, meat ends and incorrect weight.

•        Retail: including rejections, returns, overs, short life and product not picked up by supplier.

Illustration of canned food with four cans: spaghetti, tomatoes, beans, and soup, arranged on a gray surface.

Logistics that make things easy for you

A delivery truck with an illustration of community service activities, including food distribution, volunteering, and children playing, with the words 'The bread and butter thing' on the side.

  • Our rapid transport infrastructure combines our own fleet of refrigerated vans along with multiple haulier partners including DHL, DFDS, Fowler Welch, Freshlinc and Moran Logistics.

  • We collect same or next day across the UK utilising back hauling to minimise food miles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

  • The Bread and Butter Thing has 2 warehouses offering chill and frozen storage. These are located in Eccles (Greater Manchester) and Chilton (County Durham). We also have additional frozen storage space with partners in across the UK.

  • We offer tray and pallet de-hiring as well as other asset returns including farm bins and dolavs.

Creative Surplus Solutions

We enjoy the challenge of finding bespoke solutions for our partners. For example:

·        We offer cost neutral solutions to farmers to ensure no crop is wasted. We know there can be financial barriers to stopping food going to waste and we want to make sure you are not out of pocket. This could include covering costs to make sure there is:

a)       No loss in revenue from waste streams such as animal feed or anaerobic digestion.

b)       If you are going to leave crops in the field, we will pay for the labour to carry out a final harvest.

c)       We will collect food at our cost and return your assets if needed.

·        Take us on a factory walk to see what we can uncover with your technical teams.

·        Use us to mop up surpluses others can’t take.

Let us know your surplus challenge and we’ll help you find a solution!

Get in touch with our Food team…

Justin at justin@breadandbutterthing.org

Hayley at hayley.mahon@breadandbutterthing.org

Rhona at rhona.yuille@breadandbutterthing.org

Or call them on 0333 004 0287

Cartoon illustration of a person with glasses, short hair, and a blue shirt, smiling.

  • “Since 2016, we have worked closely with The Bread and Butter Thing to help distribute our surplus food. This partnership allows us to not only reduce our food waste but support great causes at a local level. The team is incredibly flexible and works closely with our sites to ensure food is collected and distributed in a quick manner. ”

    Ruth McDonald, Corporate Services Director, Morrisons

  • “Worldwide Fruit has always been determined to reduce its quantities of edible surplus that go to waste but we needed a redistribution partner that could work flexibly with the complex logistics of moving tonnes of fruit around the country.”

    Andy Mitchell, Senior Technical Manager, Worldwide Fruit Ltd

  • “We choose to work with TBBT as a key redistribution partner for our edible surplus because its team is flexible, responsive and innovative in the way they approach surplus and they are able to take all kinds of product from ingredients through to finished goods. Cranswick has ambitious sustainability plans to have zero edible food waste by 2030 and TBBT are helping us to deliver that whilst ensuring our surplus helps support families who need it.”

    Clare Burcham, Group Second Nature Coordinator, Cranswick