Olio, a British food redistribution startup, has partnered with Whole Foods Market to prevent food waste at its stores in London.

The partnership involves Olio's team collecting edible food from Whole Foods Market stores and redistributing it through its app to local households for free. Whole Foods’ London stores will give Olio's volunteers any remaining organic produce at closing time.

After a successful trial period at Whole Foods’ Kensington location, Olio has been enlisted to continue its efforts. During the six-week pilot scheme, Olio's Food Waste Heroes collected more than 1,200 kg of edible food (approximately 2,800 meals) from Whole Foods Market and distributed them to 439 local households, preventing approximately 5,000 kg of CO2 emission.

Analyst QuickTake : Olio, operating a freemium model, has been taking the partnership route to expand its presence. Whole Foods Market is the latest addition to its list of partners, including T esco , Pandamart , One Stop, Iceland, Pret a Manger, Compass Group, Restaurants Associates, Chartwells, and Eurest. Early this year, Olio also partnered with Anglian Learning , an east Anglian multi-academy trust, to help reduce food waste at its Cambridgeshire and Essex secondary schools.