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.

If you add them to your faces you get to kbow when they have sold out.

They usually appear 10-15 mins after todays slot is over I find.

thanks, I tried that, but because the shop isn't there any more, I can't🙁
It ought to let you see a list of stores you've purchased from
Will keep looking next week and favourite ❤️it when I see it - and grab another bag.

You can show things that are sold out? That may pick it up.

YANBU. I've ordered a couple of bags now, from chain coffee shops. They have had some nice cake in, to be fair. But also other random stuff like bacon rolls (which look gross) and vegan tuna sandwiches. The bacon roll ended up in the bin, which does kind of defeat the object.

We only tried it once and then I deleted the app

1. the clerk behaved a bit odd when I collected the bag. Like it was a huge inconvenience and I was odd.
2. The food that wasn't stale was very unhealthy fast food and we didn't like the taste of it.
3. One of the items you could only cook in a microwave oven. We do not have one.

I wonder if Gorillas have stopped doing it? They were always up there (they are five minutes from me) they were the best one.

Agree with this. It does seem that sometimes we're throwing the food away instead of the store and we've paid for it. On the whole I like the premise, but we often get gluten free sandwiches or vegan substitutes that no one wants and they are thrown in the bin. I asked once if I could change the sandwich as it would just be binned and they said they couldn't switch it.

I think it's a bit unfair to complain that the bag of goodies isn't exactly what you would have wanted. If that's what you want then you order normally from the shop and pay full price. The idea of this is the shop can very quickly throw stuff in a bag and sell it very cheap. If they have to start swapping stuff around or removing unwanted items it quickly becomes not worth it for the shop.

there is a difference between

getting the vegan baps (Costa?) that you wouldn't normally pick. thats fair enough, luck of the draw.

and

getting stale croissants that no one wants and whilst technically edible, really they may as well go straight in the bin and you are just paying for it to go into your bin and not theirs.

Most cakes are FINE at the end of the day, even the next day but my heart sinks when i see a croissant as i know it will just be dry and stale.

True. But it doesn't avoid food waste which is the premise of the app.

I got coffee pods with a sellby of next year - don’t have a machine.

also - in-shop made soup - they have a cafe (just a label saying ‘minestrone soup’ and no ingredients, made on date, allergy notes etc)

2 pots of yoghurt in their sell by date. One was a very sugary one.

pack of rice cakes (short sell by)

I forget if there was anything else. I wasn’t very impressed.

I collect a bag from my local Gorilla's on TGTG yesterday morning.

Their Magic bags are fabulous have tried both the vegetarian and mixed bags.
The raw king prawns in yesterday's bag was so delicious. They couldn't be frozen so I used in a stir fry last night.

I find TGTG brilliant for me and have been using it for over a year. I tend to stick to the stores that work best for me. I will try most food though and have spent many years turning food waste into meals. I cook and eat both meat dishes and vegan/vegetarian food as my daughter is vegetarian.

My late DH worked in catering for many years and fortunately his workplace allowed staff to take home leftover food rather than throw it away.

Some food past their use by date such as yogurt and eggs and vegetables are perfectly fine. Also fresh milk can be frozen. With eggs I wouldn't use boiled if more than a week or two out of date, but fine for cooking in other ways. My mum had hens when I was little so we sometimes found a hidden nest of eggs. Stale eggs are lighter than fresh.

You can refresh stale baguettes, unsliced bread in the oven by dampening slightly with water and then reheating in the oven. Best eaten straight away. I also sometimes use stale bread to make croutons.

If you look under me on the app and click on bags saved you can see all bags you have previously purchased from. Click on the address and you can see the store even if there is no food to save today. Click on the nothing to save today and it still brings up the store . You can then favourite the store assuming they are still using TGTG.

thanks you everyone - found it😄

Also found - best ever cake shop in London 🍰- £4 for half a cake (they sell it in slices for around £7 a slice) - the full cake is £110, and it's my favourite one that I occasionally buy on my birthday (not the giant £110 size).
I was kind of hoping for a sandwich, but the office were happy (and slightly zonked out on sugar by mid afternoon)

What shop is this please?!

the fabulous Konditor and Cook🎂😀

Now look what you’ve done. You’ve only gone and made me rescue cake!

They are a way of shops clearing old stock. It's a great idea but not always useful. There's presumably no regulation regarding the value for money aspects.

I have more concerns that foodbanks exist to make the do-gooders feel better and support big charities.
Supermarkets exist in good locations and offer all sorts of food. Donating food to a foodbank means someone gets a bag or two of items they might not want. Food vouchers redeemable at shops would be a better idea in terms of access. Sorting out who gets vouchers and how much would require fewer warehousing stores, outlets, energy bills than foodbanks. Staff at supermarkets are paid not volunteers. They're there any way.
Tying in to an account would also reduce the number to foodbank surfers who take food and resell for various purposes.

Or we could go full on community kitchen and provide meals from various locations like during WW2.
Given the fuel crisis that might be a better offering.

I tried 2 different Morrisons, I often ended up with one veg (cauliflower), or rotten veg, or not worth the amount. I had one good bag from them. The variety was poor and they just think it’s veg though.
Didnf like Starbucks or costa but their food isn’t great anyway.
Greggs was great but too much junk.

Tim Hortons near me does one but pick up is after midnight!

there aren't any supermarkets on it near me - mosly coffee shops, etc
probably depends on the branch as to how good chains are, and the type of day they've had. Starbucks was good near me, a couple of baguettes, a cake and a pastry - they were fine the next day, so two meals for what I'd usually pay for one (and a lot less than if I'd bought at Starbucks)

@KittenKong Cake needs rescuing - just leave some for me. My cake today felt very loved🤗

@mumda workers and volunteers at foodbanks I've known have felt more exhausted, overwhelmed and despairing rather than "feelgood" - whilst there are some merits in your suggestion, there can be wider asistance; charities having people there to assist with other needs such as debt advice, benefits, etc - and just some empathy and understanding, rather than a supermarket cashier looking down their noses on being given a voucher. (not suggesting they all do) - & I recall issues last tear with vouchers not being at convenient locations for recipients when they were used in liue of school lunches last year.

I get what you're saying. In theory it's a great idea,in practice,not so much. I've tried ones from Gregg's,Cafe Nero and Georgino's Cafe/ Coffee shop. I've more or less given up on the Gregg's ones. I really don't like ham not even 'naice' ham so guess what I ALWAYS seem to end up with?! Ham and cheese baguettes,ham and salad rolls, basically, anything with ham in it!