Save the planet and save money!
Post by Lottie Ryan on behalf of Replenish
Food waste has become a hot topic in recent times and rightly so! It is a major problem environmentally and financially! A third of all food produced globally is wasted1, with UK households binning 4.5 million tonnes of edible food every year2. That is around 20% of all the food we buy3!
Even King Charles has made tackling food waste his first major personal project as monarch, developing the Coronation Food Project4, a national scheme created to tackle food insecurity and waste.
This crisis has resulted in the development of a number of free apps to tackle food waste. They help you to save the planet, rescue perfectly good food that may have been thrown away, and save some money!
I downloaded some of the apps and gave them a go…
Olio
Olio was founded in 2015, by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One. Their frustration with food waste saw them develop the local community food sharing app. Its success has seen it grow to 7 million ‘Olio-ers’ in 51 countries around the world.
Downloading the app and setting up an account was easy, however despite there being 554 ‘Olio-ers’ within 2K of my location, the first time I checked it the only available item was a sausage roll! Not quite the spread I was expecting.
Throughout the day more food was added, especially in the afternoon and evening when Olio volunteers collect surplus food from partner shops and cafes and share it on the app.
Requesting food is easy, and once accepted you can organise a time and address to pick up. I found the vast majority of items on it to be bakery items, but there were also fruits and vegetables, canned goods and ready meals.
‘Best before’ or ‘use by’ dates were not always given but lots of items had reduced stickers on, so would need to be used or frozen soon. Olio users are required to follow food safety rules and so can not share food after the ‘use by’ date. Knowing your dates helps reduce food waste.
Overall, I wouldn’t say you could do a whole food shop on Olio, but as each item is listed individually you know what you are getting. Users often list more than one item, so you could choose multiple items from one collection point. By changing the postcode to my nearest town, more products were available close by.
Notably, Olio’s fight against waste has spread to non-food items, allowing users to give away, sell, borrow or request all sorts of items on the app.
Too good to go
Too good to go connects customers to local restaurants, supermarkets, cafes, and independent businesses that have an unsold surplus of food. Food is packaged into ‘surprise bags’ and sold at a reduced price, roughly a third of the original price.
Again, downloading the app and setting up an account was easy. There were about 20 nearby cafes, restaurants and supermarkets offering bags ranging from £2 (a supermarket bakery bag, RRP £6) to £5 (from a Sushi restaurant, RRP £15).
As I didn’t need any more bakery items! I went for a surprise bag from my local Co-op that advertised ‘3 or more grocery and fresh food items’ for £3.30. I paid on the app and went to collect it.
Collection was easy and I came home with a packet of falafels, courgettes, carrots and brussel sprouts and a Ginsters chicken and mushroom pastry slice.
The falafels and chicken and mushroom slice were on their ‘use by date’ so I ate the falafels and popped the slice in the freezer for lunch later in the week.
The vegetables, despite being on their ‘best before’ dates lasted a good few days in perfect condition in the stored correctly in the fridge.
Overall it was good value (less than the total reduced price) and I was pleased to receive a wide and relatively healthy selection of items. However, not knowing what was in the bags pre purchase might mean using your imagination to create a meal. You also risk receiving a random selection of food that you may not like.
You can filter your search for ‘vegetarian’ or ‘vegan’ diet preferences, but there wasn’t much availability for these (especially for vegan). There was no possibility to accommodate for allergies (as it is nearly impossible for stores to guess what will be left over!)
Don’t forget food banks
If food sharing is not for you please don’t throw away food that is still in date. Instead, give it to your local food bank. According to the Trussell Trust food banks are bracing for their worst winter yet, as the cost of living crisis continues to plunge more families into poverty. More than 600,000 people are expected to need support between December 2023 and February 20245.
You can search for your local food bank here and check on their website for what they will take. Most accept everything except alcohol, homemade food, opened packets, out of date food and refrigerated or frozen food. Don’t forget they often collect essential non-food items too, such as toiletries and nappies.
More apps . . .
Next time I’ll be taking a look at some apps designed to reduce your food waste at home – NoWaste and Kitche. I’ll also check out Giki Zero, which is a carbon calculator and so helps you make other planet friendly changes.
Sources
- WWF Basket: Food Waste
- WRAP
- Saving money On Food | Love Food Hate Waste
- The King celebrates 40 years of PWCF | The Royal Family
- Big Issue: Food banks are being forced to ration supplies.
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