Food waste has become a huge problem. From farm to plate, about one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption gets wasted. In the meantime 1 in 9 people goes hungry at night. Wasting food is not only shameful, but it also uses valuable environmental resources and costs money. In the UK alone, £13bn worth of food that could have been eaten end up in the bin. From meal planning to better use of leftovers, there are many ways we can reduce the amount of food we throw away, saving on average up to £60 a month.
Listed below are some innovative apps that you can simply download on your phone to help alleviate the issue. Each app has a different angle from sharing food, buying cheap surplus meals from local restaurants or simply being alerted to the latest supermarket deals. Two are available in the UK (Olio and Too Good To Go), while the others are available in Europe and India.
Olio (UK) – OLIO connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. It could be teabags in your cupboard, groceries in your fridge, spare home-grown vegetables to food nearing its sell-by date in local stores. OLIO helps you connect with like-minded people around you, whether you have food or want food. OLIO can also be used for non-food household items. Available for Android & iOS.
Too Good To Go (UK + Europe) – Founded in Denmark in 2015, Too Good To Go is now available in 6 different countries and will be rolling out in the US next year. Download the App and order surplus food from local restaurants, cafes, bakeries & other stores near you. Collect it up to an hour before closing time and enjoy prices from as little as £2 and a maximum of £3.80. From June to November 2015, Too Good To Go helped prevent 10,000 UK meals from going to landfill. Available for Android & iOS.
Lunchie (Finland) – “Taste something new every day”, Lunchie also matches restaurants that have a surplus from their lunch services with individuals who are looking for meals at reasonable take-away prices. Available for Android & iOS.
NoFoodWasted (The Netherlands) – NoFoodWasted enables supermarkets and consumers to work together to reduce food waste. Everyday supermarkets can list products that are almost at their best before date and at discounted prices. With the app, individuals stay up-to-date with offers from their favourite shops, benefiting from savings and buying products that would otherwise go to waste. Available for Android & iOS.
Yo No Desperdicio (Spain) – with Yo No Desperdicio, Spanish consumers can share food between themselves that they no longer want or cannot use. Both parties then arrange for the free delivery of the products. Available for Android.
No Food Waste (India) – No Food Waste serves the surplus excess foods from Weddings, Parties and other events to the hungry and deprived. Present in 4 cities in India, No Food Waste has fed over 230000 people so far. Available for Android.
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Great article, how about a 2018 update?
A new line of apps have emerged and one of them – “CogZum” iPhone app was released a few months ago.
We have created a self-learning groceries management assistant – an effective tool for avoiding food spoilage at home by automatically tracking the food freshness and helping the users to buy exactly as much as it is needed.
CogZum manages the whole food journey, from supermarket shopping with a sorted digital list to a fridge & pantry catalogue of stocked food (with calculated “best by” dates) and other home supplies.
Several times in a day, CogZum checks user’s home catalogue and finds all items that are about to go bad. At the right time, he notifies the user giving him the option to execute the appropriate action without even opening the app.
Finally, our app is designed to change the way people think about food expiry. First, it suggests that an estimate, based on individual storage conditions and past experience should be used as a starting point for “best by” calculation. Secondly, it shows visually that a product that has been good for a month is most likely to still be ok for a day or two more.
For an overview of all app features, please visit: http://cogzum.com
Looks really interesting. Thanks for sharing.