Fight Food Waste and Help the Planet with These Amazing Apps

Discover how apps can make a positive impact on our planet.

Eat What's in Your Fridge to Fight Food Waste and Reduce Emissions

Did you know that food waste contributes to 8 to 10 percent of human-created greenhouse gas emissions globally? The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reveals that producing, transporting, and allowing food to rot is a major contributor to climate change. However, there are simple changes you can make at home to make a meaningful difference. Explore three ways these apps can help you eat smarter and waste less:

Shop with a Plan: Meal Planning Made Easy

According to Sam Hubble, a behavioral-change specialist at WRAP, the main reasons we throw away food include not using it in time, not liking it, or making too much. Fortunately, there are apps that offer solutions to help you make small, impactful changes at home.

Meal planning apps like Mealime can combine recipes to ensure that leftover ingredients from one meal are used up in another. These apps can also help you find recipes based on what's already in your fridge. Additionally, many apps allow you to scale down recipes and adjust quantities accordingly in the shopping lists they create for you.

To make the most out of these apps, it's important to be realistic about how often you'll cook. Consider keeping a day free in your weekly plan to use up any leftover ingredients that might otherwise go to waste. Another useful tip is to always go grocery shopping with a list. Planning your meals and shopping trips can make a significant difference in reducing food waste.

Keep Track of Your Fridge Inventory

Do you often find yourself buying duplicates of pantry items or throwing away freezer-burned food? These apps can help you keep track of what you already have, preventing overbuying and reducing waste.

Adding items to your inventory is easy with these apps. Many of them allow you to scan a product's barcode or add everything you purchased by scanning your grocery receipt. They can also send reminders when items are close to expiring, and some apps even keep a running tally of how much food you've wasted. Tracking your food waste can be eye-opening and motivating.

Did you know that American households spend approximately $1,800 a year on food that ends up in the trash? Globally, around a trillion dollars' worth of food is wasted. In addition to using these apps, consider having containers and labels for your leftovers ready to go and organizing your fridge so that you can easily see what needs to be eaten. These small changes can make a big difference in reducing food waste.

Discover Delicious Deals and Reduce Food Waste

In the food service and retail industries, a significant amount of edible food is thrown out daily. This contributes to about 40 percent of food waste worldwide, with households accounting for the remaining 60 percent. Fortunately, there are apps like the ones below that aim to reduce this waste. They connect restaurants, grocers, bakeries, and other shops with customers who can purchase discounted meals or foods nearing their expiry date.

Apps like Too Good To Go offer Surprise Bags from businesses, which can be picked up during specified time windows, usually towards closing. Too Good To Go has already saved more than 300 million meals since its launch eight years ago and is available in 17 countries. Another app, Olio, has kept an estimated 32,000 tons of food from going to waste since its 2015 launch and is available in over 50 countries. You can make a difference by letting your local restaurants and grocery stores know that reducing food waste is important to you.