Waste not, want not: Michelle Darmody tests two food-waste apps

Pic: iStock

Every year, the average family in Ireland throws away 117kg of food which can cost anywhere from €400 to €1000 per annum.

So, thinking a little more about how we use the food we buy can help us make savings and, as the saying goes, “there’s an app for that”. 

In fact, quite a number of apps are available to help reduce food waste within the home, or to connect households with local businesses who have surplus food. I tested two of them, each of which uses a different approach.

Between all Irish homes and businesses, we waste 800,000 tonnes of food each year. 

Shops and supermarkets need to start tackling the issue head-on and a clever business idea is helping to reduce waste and provide people with inexpensive food in the process. 

It comes in the form of the Too Good To Go app.

TOO GOOD TO GO

Once you log in it lets you know which registered businesses in your area have leftover food so you can pop by and pick up a bargain. Users pay €5 for €15 worth of food, which is a huge saving. On offer is a mixture of grocery boxes or ready-prepared food from restaurants.

I booked a pick-up from a local bakery and the bag was extremely generous, I had enough loaves, bread rolls and pastries to fill my freezer and keep us going for quite a few days. Collection was seamless as the food was waiting with my name on it when I arrived.

I spoke to Finn of the Hop Sack in Rathmines in Dublin about how this model works for his business. 

Overall he has found it a very positive experience which has undoubtedly reduced food waste. 

He already had a great philosophy for counteracting waste in the fruit and vegetables section: “Day one on the shelf, day two in a salad, day three in a soup”. 

By following this strategy, he hardly ever has fresh fruit and vegetables left at the end of the day. But what happens if the salads and soups that he makes are not bought?

This is where Too Good To Go has proved helpful. Typically a Too Good To Go bag will consist of food from the deli counter as well as some dairy, sprouts or hummus that are soon going out of date. 

He has no reservations recommending other small businesses join.

But it is not just small outlets on the app. In my area, some of the large supermarkets are also organising Too Good to Go grocery bags at the end of their day.

Michelle Darmody. Pic: Fergal Phillips

FRIDGELY

Keeping in mind the shelf life of the food we buy can be key to reducing waste within our homes, Fridgely is another app designed to tackle food waste. 

After grocery shopping, you either scan the barcode on your individual items or scan your till receipt. 

This uploads information about your food purchases into the app. 

It then sends you an alert when your food is close to expiring and suggests recipes that incorporate that ingredient or product.

I was looking forward to the organised life that Fridgely promised. 

The interface was easy to decipher: After you scan, you decide where to store the item you purchased — fridge, shelf, store cupboard etc— and the app will then log the use-by-date of the produce. 

In my case, this did not always seem to work, with dates a little muddled up.

There is a large selection of recipes on the app, I scanned a receipt with 10 items and was given 20 different recipes to choose from, a mixture of sweet and savoury. The recipes were tasty and sensible. 

I found the scanning-the-receipt method far easier than using the barcode on each item, which was a little too fiddly for me. 

I liked the idea that I could glance at my phone while at work and know what was waiting in the fridge at home, but as the week went on, I simply forgot to check the app and reverted to staring into the fridge after work waiting for inspiration to strike.

If you are in a larger household with more ins and outs, I can see how Fridgely could be a very helpful tool. 

Using the app for the week reiterated the importance of being mindful of when I bought an item, and to make sure to use ingredients in order of their dates. 

Using Finn’s philosophy — “day one on the shelf, day two in a salad, day three in a soup” — has also been very helpful.

I would highly recommend registering with Too Good To Go. In the UK there are other options such as Olio which provides a platform for neighbours to share unwanted food. 

It is great to see technology helping us to deal with large problems. Hopefully, in the future, we will see more ways to not only save money but to help the planet as we do so.