A NEW store has opened in Malmesbury offering shoppers zero packaging when they buy their food.

The Wild Food Company sell a range of unpackaged loose foods covering all the staples including, oats, seeds, nuts, lentils, rice, pasta, peppercorns and popping corn using their gravity dispensers.

They can also dispense household cleaners and shampoo and conditioners.

Tom Bowerman, owner of the High Street shop said: “This is something we’ve been working towards for some time, reducing unnecessary waste is really important to us as both as individuals and as a business and it feels great to be reinvesting our profits back into the business to do something positive in this area."

He said the gravity dispensers are a modern way of offering loose foods, without the hygiene risks of the more traditional open scoop bins you may have seen in the past.

A customer can now bring their own containers and fill up on store cupboard essentials or use reusable paper bags.

He said: "Shopping this way means that people save on unnecessary plastic packaging waste and also save money too as everything works out a better price than it did in the little pre-packaged plastic bags the goods used to be sold in."

With plans to add more products and packaging free options in the coming months, the store is following a national trend.

Marlborough has its own zero waste shop in Hughenden Yard while Waitrose are experimenting with it in Oxford.