SHOPPERS looking to save cash on their groceries could get food for FREE from Tesco with the help of an app.
The supermarket gives away products including bread, veg and pastries that would otherwise go to waste via Olio.
Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert website revealed the tip in its weekly email newsletter.
The experts said: "The Olio app is mainly known for offering up grub for nowt – the idea being instead of binning surplus food, people or stores offer it to their local community.
Among the food being given away was bread, fruit and veg, pastries and more from Tesco, they said.
Olio is free to use and the app is available on iPhones and Android phones.
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You'll have to sign up which means sharing a few personal details like your name and email.
You'll also need to share your location so you can see what's available near you.
Tesco initially trialled the scheme in 250 stores before rolling it out to all of its sites across the UK last year.
The free food is close to its expiry date but Olio is registered with the Food Standards Agency to make sure it is still safe to eat when it's collected.
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Whether there is food available from Tesco will depend on where you are, if your local store has any leftovers, and if other people snap it up first.
While the groceries are completely free, there is often limited availability and no guarantee what products will be on offer.
This is because Tesco hands out surplus food to charities before any spare groceries are given to Olio.
Tesco runs surplus food donations programme, like the Community Food Connection scheme with Fare Share.
All Tesco stores that don't have daily charity collections now have scheduled Olio pick-ups.
The app said that if a charity is able to take on collection days currently assigned to Olio, the charity will take priority.
You won't pick up the food from Tesco stores directly.
Instead volunteers sign up to be Olio food waste heroes, and are assigned a slot to collect surplus food from their local Tesco store.
They then bring it home and list it on the Olio app for their neighbours to collect for free.
And it's not just Tesco that's giving away food through the Olio app, you can also get food from KFC, Costa Coffee and Pret a Manger.
And anyone can give away items on Olio, so you could bag other bargains too like furniture and clothes too, including for free.
How to get free food from Tesco using Olio
First of all, you'll need to download the Olio app from either the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Then you should sign up – you'll need to share details including your email address and location so the app can find your nearest available free food.
Once you've made an account you will be able to find Tesco groceries using the search bar in the app.
This will bring up all the Tesco food being given away in your local area.
You then have to press the "request this" button, and message the volunteer to arrange a time and place to collect your freebies.
You can get free food from another food waste app called Too Good To Go.
You can get free "magic bags" of food from places like Greggs that would otherwise have gone in the bin.
One Too Good To Go user managed to grab food for a week from Nisa, including four pizzas, veg and biscuits, for just £3.50.
Another spent £4 at Co-op and walked away with plenty of grub including a BBQ meat selection.
Bear in mind that it's often a lucky dip, so you won't be able to choose what you get.
One student managed to save £70 on her weekly food shop with clever hacks, including food-sharing apps.
Another Olio fan was able to get an entire picnic for free using the app, and this mum revealed her huge food-sharing haul.
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