A new app launched in Baltimore City aims to drastically reduce the city’s uneaten food waste from restaurants.
“Too Good To Go” is an app that brings together customers with leftover goods. The app allows restaurants to post products about to expire at significantly reduced prices. At the end of each day, restaurants pack surplus items into bags and then post the bags on the app to sell. The cost of each bag is a fraction of what it would cost to buy each item individually. So far, over 80 Baltimore City businesses have started using the app, saving over 4000 meals.
Business owners say Too Good To Go offers another avenue, other than donations, to avoid food waste. According to Too Good To Go, over 126 million tons of food is wasted each year in the US.
“We actually talk about quite a lot this win, win, win proposition,” said Claire Oliverson, the US Head of Marketing for Too Good To Go. “When you reduce food waste, and you pick up a surprise bag, you are helping those local businesses reduce their food waste. The planet wins, each surprise bag is the equivalent of CO2 of charging your smartphone 422 times, and then all of us consumers, you get great food for a third of the price.”
“Every time you pick up a bag, I have to say that’s when it all kind of clicks, and you have this feeling of, I just can’t believe that this amazing food would have gone to waste if I hadn’t been here to pick it up,” said Oliverson.
According to Too Good To Go, the leading causes of retail food waste are:
- Regular replenishment of stock and large product quantities on display
- Inadequate package sizes to attract consumers
- Demand unpredictability and challenges in demand forecasting
- Overstocking in bulk and lack of storage facilities
- Misinterpretation of the product’s shelf life
- Outdated promotional, damaged, and unpopular items
- Availability of ready-made fresh food
