To think Too Good To Go is doing little to help food waste?

[Sapphirejane]

I could be unlucky but it seems to me that all the Too Good to Go app is doing is shifting the food being thrown away from the shops to being thrown away by the customer, whilst at the same time boosting the shop’s profits and letting them say they are cutting food waste.

For those who don’t know, it’s an app where shops sell mystery bags of food that should be edible but would otherwise be thrown away due to sell by dates, at a very reduced price. I’ve tried the app a few times and each time I’ve had bags of mostly inedible/stale food with lots of repeats (a bag with 4 limp/mouldy lettuces for example) which end up being thrown away by me rather than by the shop. My friend has had a similar experience. Are we just unlucky?

YABU - it’s a great system and you’ve just been unlucky with your bags.

YANBU - you are just paying to do the shops dirty work for them.

I've always had good luck with it but I only really use for local cafes where I like the majority of the food anyway. There's a cafe round the corner from my house that regularly does bags for £3 and will typically be able to get lunches for me and DH for the next day plus some cake or a pastry for breakfast.

I've only trued it a couple of times - I havejt trued a supermarket one as I think that would be disappointing. The ones I had were costa and Starbucks. They were OK, both had egg mayo sandwiches though. I have favourites greggs as I expect that would be good but never seem to catch that one

@InChocolateWeTrust - I disagree that it’s worth what you pay. Some of the bags people have described definitely sound worth it, but even if it was once worth £15, if it’s now inedible

Agreed, I should have been clearer, it's worth at most what you paid, not more, and often less!

@InChocolateWeTrust - ah sorry I reread your post and get what you mean now. I am jealous of all these people with local independent bakeries.

Have only tried Pret but it was decent- veggie Mac and cheese, meatball wrap and falafel wrap for £4. The man asked me when I got there if I ate meat and choose accordingly. Am trying out one from a local bakery later so fingers crossed it's decent!

@MyDogsTheBestDog I can get there on time, I was just curious. Weirdly pick up is between 4-4.45 when I doesn't close till 6 🤷🏼‍♀️

The supermarket ones feel like too much of a gamble. There's always rubbish in the yellow stickered section at the end of the day so assuming a bag would be no different.

There was a thread on here somewhere ( think in the food section) where people put pictures of what they got in their bags

Have just downloaded the app after reading this.
It mostly seems to be things from station kiosks (I'm close to two major main line stations). I guess there's more variety on days other than Sunday - and towards the end of the day.

YANBU
i think it works both ways, depends on where you go.
There is only a small CoOp in my village, and what you get depends upon which assistant assembled the bag. If one person does it we get enough for a sensible meal for 4. If the young lad does it we get a mad combination - yes, a combination of protein, carbs and veg but last time it was 6 mini pork pies, two lettuces and 2 bottles of orange juice. Obviously waiting to be thrown away.

The two I’ve had have been awful. I don’t get it either. Yes, I paid 3.50 for one from Costa. Was supposedly over £10.50 of food. Yes, the panini, muffin, sausage roll and croissant would have cost me that to choose and eat in at Costa but I could have purchased double the quantity (of chosen and in date food) round the corner at Morrisons to eat at home. I threw half away.

Just picked up a Greggs one.
Tuna baguette
Tuna sandwich
Chicken bake.
Two yum yums
Belgium bun

£2.95.

Good value with two adult children in their early 20's at home.

Looks lovely @minesalargered - right I’ve taken all the tips on board (minus the independent shop because none are showing sadly) and I am going to try again tomorrow with a different place.

The only two places I get it from is our local independent bakery and coffee shop. Both have been great, we have eaten all of it. I wouldn't get supermarket ones as I would be worried about it being inedible.

Even if it's only 5% of the food that gets eaten, that's still an improvement! Why are people so quick to judge places for not doing anything to help, then when they do they judge them too??

£2.59 from Greggs.

2 sandwiches and 6 cakes. Am happy with that.

Greggs is always worthwhile i find.

One place we did everything was out out of date like a tub of soup one month out of date. Mini milks 2 weeks out of date. It all went in my bin. A few Greg’s ones have been ok. Had one good Morrisons and one that was just all bread.

Oh we tried like a tiny style breakfast but they but beans and toms all over the entire thing so that went straight in the bin where as the other local restaurant but the beans and toms in a separate tub.

That's really interesting as I paid £3.50 for 2 stale croissants at a local cafe. No way was it £10 worth of stuff.

Greggs stopped doing it near me. Costa gave me 6 vegan ham and cheese toasties in the last one 🤦‍♀️

I’ve tried Starbucks and costa a few times when I’ve been short of time or going out the next day and hoping to get a couple of sandwiches to take me. Every single item has always needed reheating, vegan bacon roll, vegan cheese (always seems to be lots of vegan stuff) panini etc… So I’ve needed to use toaster/oven/microwave which defeats the purpose for me, and diminishes the cost effectiveness.

I complained getting just 2 egg sandwiches from Leon that were barely worth more than what I paid and I got a £5 credit.

I've also found TGTG hit and miss and it's probably only worth it if you eat a lot of chain cafe food as it's a way of getting that at less than full price.

When I got Toby carvery I basically paid half the cost of eating on for a third of the amont of meat, an enormous Yorkshire pudding, some lumpy mash and a pint of vegetarian gravy. Total waste of time and money.

My two Costa ones were also mainly vegan meat substitute sandwiches. To further combat food waste I think Costa need to reflect on the levels of these vegan sandwiches they are making.

It was very hit and miss for us. The first bag I picked up was great - butter, cheese, fish and veg from a local deli, although the veg was past its best and I had to throw some of it away. After the first, the bags were definitely not worth the money…loads of one thing where the use by date is today and cannot be frozen, or stale pastries and donuts.

Interestingly a lot of outlets near me have come off the app entirely or are still on but never have anything to offer: I asked the deli staff about it and they said it was simpler for them to discount the short dated food more steeply to ensure that someone buys it, or else it goes home with their staff.

I've just picked up my first one from costa. And I was late and they had closed an hour early! But luckily they let me in and gave it to me.

I got
1 cheese and beans toastie
1 ham and cheese toastie
1 mozarella and tomato panini
1 M&S BLT
2 egg, mushroom and spinach rolls.

Would have liked a better mix of pasties and sandwiches, but not bad for £3!

I've successfully frozen toasties and pastries if that helps people. If you have an air fryer they're great for reheating.

Sandwiches, pasta salad etc are almost certainly fine to eat the day after the use by date.