The 5 Best Apps to Reduce Food Waste (and Save Money on Groceries)
Food prices continue to rise – they have risen more than 2% in the last year, and the trend line is unlikely to decline anytime soon. The average monthly food bill is about $504 (that’s more than $6,000 a year), which is a lot for most people. At the same time, the average family in this country loses about $1,500 each year in food waste – about a third of all food in this country goes uneaten .
These are grim numbers when people are struggling to afford groceries , but there are steps you can take to reduce both the amount of food wasted in this country and your grocery bills. One of the easiest is to download an app that combines the two, making discounted leftovers easily accessible. Here are some of the best ones to use.
Too good to leave
Too Good To Go , perhaps the most well-known of the “food rescue” apps, engages local restaurants and grocery stores, which then list food that would otherwise be thrown away at significantly reduced prices. Consumers can log into the app to get deals, pop in to make a purchase, and enjoy the meal.
One slight downside to this system is the heavy emphasis on “surprise bags,” which are food items you buy without even looking. This may work well if you’re just looking to eat at a specific restaurant for cheap, but when it comes to groceries, not knowing what you’re buying can be a problem. But if you’re too focused on saving money and keeping food out of landfills, the app definitely works as advertised.
Too Good To Go currently operates in many major metropolitan areas in the US, but you’ll have to check to see if it’s in your area.
Market of Losers
If you’re looking for a way to reduce waste by buying cheap food and having it delivered, Misfits Market is a great option. It’s a strange thing about grocery stores that weird-looking food — discolored, misshapen, or scratched in some way — is hard to sell. People just prefer food that looks pretty. A lot of “imperfect” food (especially vegetables) gets thrown out as unsellable, so Misfits Market (which recently acquired rival ugly food app Imperfect Foods ) collects these ugly-looking items , packages them, and delivers them to its users. It claims you can save 30 to 40 percent on this “ugly” food compared to what you’d find at the grocery store. Keep in mind that there’s a $15 minimum order and $5.99 delivery.
Flash food
Flashfood works with local grocery stores to alert consumers to items that are about to expire and be pulled from the shelves, and offers significant price reductions (up to 50%) on them. This saves perfectly good food from going to waste, and saves you a ton of money at the same time. There are no “surprises” here — you buy items through the app, then just pop into the store to pick them up.
As with other apps on this list, you’ll want to check to see if Flashfood partners with stores in your area that are within your coverage area.
Olio
Olio is a good alternative app for reducing food waste and saving money because it’s not focused on grocery stores or restaurants, but on your neighbors. People who have leftover food (or other household items) that they’re going to throw away can list the items on Olio. People looking for free food can request it through the app, then come in and pick it up. Some of these gifts are marked as “contactless” and are left outside for pickup, so you don’t have to worry about interacting with people. Olio also partners with local stores, assigning a volunteer to collect unwanted food from restaurants and cafes and posting it on the app as well.
Of course, how useful Olio is to you will depend entirely on how strong its network is in your area. If no one is giving away food, you won’t get much value out of it. And there’s no guarantee that its listings won’t contain anything cheap, like half-used condiments or expired food that people are just trying to get rid of. But it’s worth checking regularly to get the real deals and help keep more food out of the landfill.
Hungry harvest
Focusing on groceries (though it does offer some other items, too), Hungry Harvest will deliver “rescued” food to your door if you live in one of its service areas. Like Misfits Market, Hungry Harvest specializes in food that would otherwise be thrown in the trash. It’s a subscription service, so you sign up for a weekly box of food for a set price. There’s a $29.99 minimum order threshold to qualify for free delivery (otherwise, delivery is $3.49 per order).
The app offers several box sizes: Mini, Full, and Super (with optional organic-only versions), and each category has a minimum order amount that must be met with produce before you can add anything else. For example, the Mini Harvest box has a minimum order of $17, which must be met with just fruits and vegetables. Once you hit that $17, you can start adding snacks or other produce that might be available. After all, the whole point of the app is to save those items. The good news is that the produce will be anywhere from 25% to 50% cheaper than what you’d find at the grocery store.