Approved Food

What Approved Food does

Approved Food is a UK-based direct-to-consumer e-commerce retailer specialising in clearance, short-dated and surplus food and drink, selling discounted grocery items year-round through its website approvedfood.co.uk. The company targets price-sensitive UK consumers willing to purchase food approaching or past its best-before date in exchange for materially lower prices, a model also associated with reduced food waste. It was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Sheffield, operating with a small team of 11–50 employees.

The core business model is procurement arbitrage: Approved Food sources excess, discontinued or near-expiry stock from manufacturers, brand owners and wholesalers at deep discounts, then resells the inventory through its own online storefront at prices materially below mainstream supermarket equivalents. Fulfilment, pricing and merchandising are run in-house, and the company relies on a single owned web channel rather than third-party marketplaces based on available data. Public materials emphasise ongoing low-price positioning across ambient, chilled and grocery categories.

Approved Food is a private, for-profit company and has raised a single disclosed funding round of approximately $202,102 in December 2017 from undisclosed investors. There is no further disclosed capital activity, ownership structure, leadership team, partnership footprint, or financial detail in the source material. As a result, revenue, profitability and growth rate cannot be reliably inferred from the input; the firm should be characterised as a small, established niche e-commerce operator with limited publicly observable corporate development.

Name

Approved Food

Website

https://approvedfood.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Approved Food is a UK-based e-commerce retailer that sells clearance, short-dated and surplus food and drink at discounted prices directly to price-sensitive British consumers via its owned website approvedfood.co.uk. Founded in 2007 in Sheffield, the company operates a niche, value-led online grocery model focused on reducing food waste.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Sheffield

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel

Core offering

Approved Food is an online retailer that sells clearance, short-dated, and surplus food and drink products at discounted prices throughout the year. The company sources end-of-line, near-expiry, and overstocked grocery inventory from manufacturers and resells it directly to consumers through its e-commerce website, approvedfood.co.uk.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Clearance Food and Drink

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves2 records

Expansion highlights1 record

Direct peers

• MuscleFood: UK-based online retailer selling clearance and discounted protein/lean meat directly to consumers via e-commerce. Closest comparable business model to Approved Food, focused on short-dated and surplus meat packs sold at discount online.

Broad incumbents

• Iceland Foods: UK frozen food discounter operating supermarkets plus The Food Warehouse bulk-discount arm. Overlaps with Approved Food on discount pricing and frozen/short-dated food handling but offers a much wider frozen grocery range and a physical store footprint.
• Aldi UK: UK arm of one of Europe's largest hard-discount supermarket chains. Competes on price/value food proposition to UK consumers; broader range but increasingly overlapping on discount food positioning.
• Lidl UK: UK arm of the German hard-discount supermarket. Competes with Approved Food for price-sensitive UK grocery shoppers via aggressive everyday low pricing across an expanding UK store estate.
• B&M: UK-listed discount variety retailer with significant grocery and short-dated food assortment across hundreds of stores. Overlaps with Approved Food on discount food and clearance-style buying but operates physical rather than online-only.

Regional players

• Farmfoods: UK frozen food discounter with a regional store base. Comparable value-led positioning and reliance on frozen/short-dated inventory, though distributed through physical stores rather than e-commerce like Approved Food.
• Home Bargains: UK discount variety chain selling groceries including short-dated and clearance food lines. Compares on discount food assortment but is primarily UK regional bricks-and-mortar rather than e-commerce-led.
• Netto UK: Limited-footprint UK discount supermarket operated in partnership. Comparable hard-discount value proposition to UK consumers, though geographically narrow versus mainstream discounters.

Emerging players

• Too Good To Go: European surplus-food marketplace connecting consumers with restaurants and retailers to rescue unsold food. Conceptually aligned with Approved Food's waste-reduction and clearance pricing narrative but operates as a marketplace app rather than an owned-inventory e-commerce retailer.

Others

• Approved Wholesale: UK trade supplier of clearance and short-dated food to businesses. Adjacent to Approved Food within the same clearance food supply ecosystem and indicative of shared upstream suppliers, but serves B2B rather than the consumer-facing e-commerce model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/approvedfood
• Facebookfacebook.com/approvedfood
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/approved-food

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Approved Food