TooGoodToGo: a food app to save you money & reduce waste

Save £ and enjoy tasty food! Download TooGoodToGo to rescue restaurant/café meals and supermarket food. Do your bit for the planet whilst eating tasty food on a budget. What's not to love?

According to the United Nations, the global population is expected to increase from 7.6 billion to 9.8 billion by 2050. Along with the massive increase in population, our food waste is predicted to grow too. With decomposing food in landfills emitting methane greenhouse gas, contributing to global heating, this waste carries a significant environmental cost. It’s estimated 8-10% of GHG emissions related to food waste.

As well as the environmental harm caused by wasted food, there is the obvious financial cost. It’s estimated that between one third to a half of all food produced globally is thrown away. In the UK alone, there are 6.7 million tonnes of food wasted per year. If that waste was reduced, the cost savings would be immense.

The good news: some clever people have created a couple of food apps to help tackle this issue. You can pick up restaurant food that would otherwise be thrown away at a fraction of the cost.

In this article, I will talk about TooGoodToGo. I use it a few times a month, usually when I am too lazy or tired to cook. It’s soooooo good!

TooGoodToGo

Q: What is the mission of TooGoodToGo? 

A: To make sure good food gets eaten, not wasted. Every day, delicious, fresh food goes to waste at cafés, restaurants, hotels, shops and manufacturers - just because it hasn’t sold in time. The Too Good To Go app lets customers buy and collect Surprise Bags of food - at a great price - directly from businesses.

As of August 2022, ToGoodToGo has saved 155m food bags saved, has 164,000 subscribing businesses, and 62m users. Not bad, right?

My experience

I have used the app to get food from places such as Planet Organic (where I would never otherwise shop £££), Pret and Wasabi. You are never exactly sure what you’ll get when you buy a ‘magic bag’ (think of it as a ‘lucky dip’) but you can see the ratings of places in advance. You can also specify if you are a vegetarian, vegan and so on.

To give you an example: I picked up a magic bag from Planet Organic. I got a huge portion of organic veggie lasagne plus a box of warm cooked veg for £3.30. The normal price was over £10. The portion size was enormous 👀. 

Another example: I picked up a £4 lunch bag from Pret. I had no idea what to expect. I was given 2 vegan meatball wraps, 1 normal meatball wrap, and mac & cheese. I split it with a friend and we were stuffed. 

You get the point. I should say that there are also other apps out there. (TooGoodToGo did not sponsor this article.) For instance, Karma does the same thing just as well. 

Next time you’re feeling peckish, you know what to do. 



Lewis Humphreys

Sidney Webb House Warden