Reducing the Waste of Surplus Food

Every day huge amounts of food are thrown away as supermarkets offload produce that has passed its best-before date; restaurants, cafés and bakeries dispose of uneaten meals and foods for similar reasons.

Now an app called Too Good to Go is reducing this waste.

Devised in Copenhagen, the app offers users in 14 European countries access to unsold, safe-to-eat produce from participating suppliers. The food is heavily discounted at about a third of the regular price.

Launched in 2016, Too Good To Go has now been downloaded by 22 million people in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the U.K. Users can see which outlets in their neighbourhood have surplus food available that day, which they can then pick up at closing time.

The app helps households on restricted budgets, providing an estimated 100,000 meals a day, and also plays a part in mitigating climate change. “Food waste contributes to eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” says Mette Lykke, Too Good To Go’s CEO. “Together we can fight food waste and ensure quality surplus produce doesn’t end up in the bin. Our mission is a world where food produced is food consumed.”