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.

@RealBecca I was being facetious because a PP said about feeding excess veg to rabbits. Don’t worry I don’t like rabbits so won’t be owning any to feed mouldy lettuce to.

I use it a lot, you have to be very selective about what's going to work for you and choose accordingly. I don't generally eat at Costa/Starbucks/Greggs anyway so a bag of their food, even discounted, isn't worth it to me. There are some local cafes that are good and those are the ones I go back to; bakeries especially because nice sourdough bread is worth it for me. Gorillas grocery delivery was ace - two giant bags of food for a fiver, but they sell out fast. My only really duff one has been a Greek deli that just gave me half a dozen blocks of feta!

We have done it a few times. Costa, lots of the same biscuit, starbucks, stale cakes we threw away, morrisons, lots of fruit. Best one was millies cookies

See, I’d go mad for all that feta! It was the coffee pods that got me! I don’t have - or want a machine!

Hmph, my first ever order was cancelled by the bakery. I was looking forward to a bag of random cakes.

I've just picked a Boulangerie Jade bag up, which as always, didn't disappoint. For £4.50 I got:

Full size baguette
Loaf of some sort of artisan bread
Cheese and pickle baguette
BLT roll
1 croissant
1 pain au chocolate
1 pain aux raisin
1 apricot jam pastry
1 mini quiche
1 sausage roll

We'll get through the lot in a couple of days, especially with DC on school holidays. I also get the Greggs ones, mainly for DC, there's usually a selection of doughnuts, sausage rolls and sandwiches/filled baguettes - DH takes whatever they don't like for lunch. Pret also do great breakfast & lunch bags where you typically get 3-4 items for £3-4 which I usually share with colleagues. Buying a Pret lunch for 2-3 people in central London is a bargain, provided you're generally not too fussed about what you get.

I've had a couple from other places which have been a bit disappointing, but I just don't buy from them again. Overall, it's been a great experience for me,

Ive just reserved one from Ole and Steen which is very exciting. Anyone had one from there?

I tried it today for the first time after reading this - was impressed, will use it again.
I was surprised at how many bags sold out the day before - but I suppose a sandwich chain can safely predict that they'll have enough spares to make up 10 bags or whatever - and it they ended up putting two rather than three sandwiches in them, it would still be a fair deal.

From starbucks, bit carby, but I got a sandwich, a wrap and a roll, a muffin and a pastry for about £3.50. Yes, I could have got a meal deal from tesco for that, but supermarket sandwiches sit on the shelf for up to two days rather than being made the same day, so the sandwiches I didn't eat today will be fine tomorrow.

And I got to try coronation chicken - never had it bfore because the colour puts me off. I wouldn't necessarily choose it, but it was OK.

@SavingsThreads I have had a couple. The first was great; a really delicious salad and a couple of fruit tarts. The second was just pastries which weren’t ones I would have chosen, and an open sandwich. I was hoping for cinnamon social !

Ordered some carveries for our takeaway night tonight. What would normally be £30 or so is only £6 meaning we can still afford our date night no cook meals.

I'm interested to try the carvery, albeit the vegetarian options. They are often offered near me.

That’s what I get the veggie one. Usually it’s carrots sweetcorn peas cauliflower roast potatoes mash stuffing and gravy and yorkshires.

I found carvery very disappointing, not even enough for a meal for one, but it might have been a one off as I've seen lots of reports about how good it is and people feeding a whole family with one or two bags.

Thanks. I might try it on takeout night!

The ones we get are more than enough! Probably enough for two people in one meal.

I guess the cinnamon socials get eaten! We have an O&S right by the office but I try to only go in occasionally. TGTG has made me a realise how many they're are in central London, and they all seem to have waste daily. Suppose that's the risk you run on open sandwiches and pastries!

Really interesting to hear other people's experiences. I've used TGTG for a couple of months since reading about that and Olio in a magazine. I can't be doing with Olio - seems like it's just endless listings all by the same couple of people, each offering one baguette or one croissant or something, interspersed with a random ad for a half-eaten bag of sweets or something, but I like TGTG.

I used it a lot more at first than I do now, and kind of tested out different places to see what's good and what isn't. Generally, I've been blown away with the quantity, especially from bakeries and supermarkets/garages, and things like bread and oven meals can be frozen so it doesn't go to waste. I've found cafés meaner - one offered me two small pots of pasta salad, and hadn't been the cheapest to buy, so that was disappointing. You can always give feedback though. I think some of the partcipating places should check out how much some of the others are offering tbh. And Cafe Nero needs to stop advertising bags it's never gonna have when you get there.

What I have found is that it's really hard to eat healthily from TGTG bags. That's true of being broke generally ofc. The bread shops often include pasties with dubious fillings, and garage shops tend to include a load of muffins and pastries. I went through a phase of buying a bag from an M&S petrol station that also had a Wild Bean café and ended up with a full-on addiction to their chocolate doughnuts, which are bloody lovely tbf. Eventually I caught myself buying them at full price and thought it was probably time to apply some restraint.

Now I'm really selective about what I buy. There's a farm shop near me that offers full-size veg boxes for £4 twice a week and I know exactly what time to look to snag one (they go fast). I've also found some catering companies and speciality shops that pass on cheap coffee, tea, beer and chocolate. I'm in the middle of nowhere though. There'd be better options in my nearest city.

I think they do reduce food waste, though some places more than others. I think independents often use it as a loss leader to get their name out there but the supermarkets and garages would probably end up binning a lot more without it imo.

this is ours from last night. Veggie carvery was £2.29 meat one was £3.29. So happy with it.

Gravy on sweetcorn! I'd cry. They should put gravy/sauces in a separate container.

Ha for £2.29 they can do as they like ! I am a gravy all over person though.

I've just picked up this lot (plus an extra brownie I've just scoffed) for £4 from a small local chocolate cafe.

@Madcats - a chocolate cafe?? I really do live in the wrong place.

There's a chocolate place on my TGTG but the bags start at £14! I'm sure you get a load of chocolate but that's a lot of money for something you can't even choose.

Got one from a Waitrose in a nearby petrol station. It's usually sold out by about 3am and I now know why. Got nearly £30 of food for £5 including beef kebabs and chicken meatballs, 2 very nice salads which we ate for our evening meal, Danish pastries, Mexican sweetcorn, falafels, a chicken sub roll and a pot of coconut pieces which I'll snack on tonight. Very happy with my haul

Ecstatic - I discovered this afternoon that my favourite cafe is on there - now I have to work out whether they don't do it often, or they do, but you need to jump in super fast.
Amazing salad, a muffin, portuguese custard tart and a croissant for £3 - their salads are usually about £9.