Surplus food sales return more than R15 million to South African retailers

Ahead of World Food Day, findings from 50 SPAR stores show growing demand for discounted surplus food, while one Cape Town store has donated roughly R107 000 in sales proceeds to hunger relief.

South African retailers have recovered more than R15 million through surplus food sales on Refreshi since its inception in March 2025. Announcing the new figure ahead of World Food Day on 16 October, Refreshi and FoodForward SA say the model is helping businesses recover income and shoppers buy food at lower prices, with one participating store donating its proceeds to hunger relief.

Refreshi reports that the R15 million represents full net proceeds paid to partner businesses across its network of more than 700 partner locations in four provinces. Separate findings from 50 participating SPAR stores show how the model is working at store level.

Supermarkets, bakeries, cafés, restaurants, delis and hotels use Refreshi to pack quality unsold food into Surprise Bags. Shoppers reserve and pay for bags through the app at 50% to 60% below their original retail value, then collect them during a designated collection window.

Every loaf, punnet or plate of food that ends up in a bin is a loss twice over. The store has already paid for it, and a family down the road has gone without,” says Jakob Holbak, CEO and founder of Refreshi. “R15 million paid back to stores shows that reducing food waste does not have to be a cost to business. It can recover value that was already being lost.”

Andy Du Plessis, Managing Director of FoodForward SA, says the partnership shows how commercial food recovery can contribute to hunger relief.

Hunger in South Africa is not a problem of too little food. It is a problem of food not reaching the people who need it,” says Du Plessis. “Partnerships like this one with Refreshi open another route for quality surplus food to reach people while giving ordinary South Africans an affordable way to be part of the solution this World Food Day.”

A study conducted by Refreshi and the Consumer Goods Council, across 50 independently owned SPAR, SUPERSPAR, KWIKSPAR and SPAR Express stores found that participating stores sold more than 23 200 Surprise Bags between April 2025 and July 2026.

Monthly sales rose from 430 bags in June 2025 to 1 939 in June 2026, more than four times the previous year’s figure. The study, due to be released in South Africa in November 2026, also found that stores offering bakery items alongside fresh fruit and vegetables sold 77% more bags each month than those offering only one category.

The participating stores formed part of work under the South African Food Loss and Waste Initiative, led by the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, exploring ways to reduce food loss and waste.

At KWIKSPAR Alphen Constantia in Cape Town, every rand generated through Surprise Bag sales has been donated to FoodForward SA since April 2025. Contributions amount to roughly R107 000 to date.

Shoppers receive discounted food, while the sales proceeds support FoodForward SA’s work with communities facing food insecurity.

Environmental estimates prepared by Refreshi and the CGS across 50 stores between mid-2025 and March 2026 indicate that surplus food sales helped avoid approximately 43.5 tonnes of CO₂e emissions and prevented the waste of food containing an estimated 22.4 million litres of embedded water. In this case, embedded water refers to the water used to produce the food. The figure is roughly equivalent to nine Olympic-sized swimming pools.

South Africa faces a sobering contradiction as millions of tonnes of edible food is lost or wasted each year while many households are struggling to put enough food on the table. CSIR research estimates that around 10.3 million tonnes of edible food is lost or wasted annually, equivalent to roughly a third of the country’s local food production. At the same time, Statistics South Africa recently reports that 19.7% of households experience moderate to severe food insecurity.

The pressure is intensified by the rising cost of basic food. The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group recorded the cost of its household food basket at R5 479.80 in August 2026, placing essential groceries beyond the comfortable reach of many families.

The human impact is reflected in research released this year by FoodForward SA and the University of Cape Town’s Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit. Among 796 households regularly receiving food assistance through FoodForward SA’s beneficiary network, 61% of respondents said they had skipped meals so children or other members of their household could eat.

This year’s World Food Day theme is ‘Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.’ For us, that means finding practical ways to make better use of food that already exists,” says Holbak. “When households are making difficult choices about what they can afford to eat, keeping good food in circulation rather than allowing it to go to waste becomes both an environmental and an economic issue.”

Shoppers can download the free Refreshi app, find a Surprise Bag nearby, reserve and pay in the app, and collect it in store during the specified collection window.

Retailers can use Refreshi to recover income from quality surplus food or choose to donate the proceeds, as KWIKSPAR Alphen Constantia has done.

Start with one bag this World Food Day,” adds Holbak. “Then make it a weekly habit.”

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