There are all kinds of New Year’s resolutions to make associated with food – eating less or aiming for a more balanced diet, cooking from ingredients rather than processed foods, buying local produce to reduce your carbon footprint, and so on.
Here are some of the best Food Apps for food waste, which doesn’t necessarily mean cutting down on the amount of your own food you waste, but can also mean working with local businesses to make better use of food resources overall.
- FoodCloud
FoodCloud connects food retailers with local charities via a network of volunteer Food Waste Heroes, allowing excess meals and ingredients to be donated to those in the greatest need, rather than sitting in a ‘reduced to clear’ section until they must be thrown away unused.
Retailers are asked to give estimates of the quantity and type of food they will donate, how often they can make a donation, and what expiration dates should be expected; suppliers can sign up at a slightly higher level, including those willing to deliver their produce to FoodCloud’s hubs themselves.
- OLIO
OLIO for Android and iOS is another free app that does roughly the same thing as FoodCloud but without the specific charity angle, instead connecting individuals with retailers and each other to make sure food is used before it goes off.
Starting from something as simple as ‘one rescued cupcake’ and including less obvious listings like homegrown vegetables and household items, OLIO aims to make lots of little differences, adding up to a big impact overall.
- Too Good To Go
An app for true food-lovers, Too Good To Go connects individuals with foodservice establishments that hate throwing prepared food away at the end of the day, and are instead willing to sell it off at a reduced price as a takeaway meal.
Too Good To Go comes under some criticism for listing primarily meat dishes, making it less useful for vegetarians, but in terms of environmental impact ensuring meat does not go to waste has a much larger carbon benefit, and the app overall is a handy way to get delicious meals from recognisable brand-name eateries at a reduced cost.
- Love Food Hate Waste
Probably the most widely recognised name in reducing food waste, the Love Food Hate Waste app is a virtual larder where you can keep track of what ingredients you have at home, so you don’t buy too much when you go shopping – and when you do go shopping, its shopping list function means you can tick off what you buy as you put it into your basket or trolley too.
There’s a Meal Planner mode to map out the next two weeks’ mealtimes, and a library of recipes to use up any leftovers or near-date ingredients so that they do not have to be thrown away. Overall it lacks the connectedness of the apps mentioned above, but Love Food Hate Waste can make a real impact on a per household or even a per individual level.
