Tackling food waste one meal at a time

Independent retailers have saved more than 10,500 meals since signing up with food waste initiative Too Good To Go a year ago.

Nisa partners were among the first independent retailers to join the scheme that helps to tackle food waste while also recover some of the costs of unsold stock.

Too Good To Go, an app created in 2016, is designed to combat the growing problem of wasted food and initially worked in partnership with the food service industry.

Too Good To Go

Around 60 Nisa stores are now working with Too Good To Go reducing food waste in their stores by offering Magic Bags to shoppers.

To date Nisa partners have seen more than 6,600 all-time unique consumers through their doors to make use of the Too Good To Go initiative and in doing so have prevented a massive 26,320kg of CO2 emissions.

Nisa partner Dan Brown of Pinkie Farm, Musselburgh said the concept works brilliantly for him. “Our business is very focused on fresh and with that comes a lot of waste, so we wanted to try and find a solution. Since working with Too Good To Go the amount of food we’ve been throwing away has dramatically decreased, we’ve been saving a lot of money and our customers are thrilled.

Great image

“It’s given us a great image within the community. It’s been fantastic and very easy to use, being set up overnight and it’s been really simple ever since.”

And in Walsall, Amrit Pahal is reaping the benefits of working with Too Good To Go at his family’s store. He said: “We’ve been with Too Good To Go for a while now and I’m proud to say we’re actively tackling our wastage with this ingenious concept!”

Paschalis Loucaides, UK Country Manager at Too Good To Go said: “In just one year our partnership with Nisa has gone from strength to strength.

Eradicating food waste

“Eradicating food waste will only happen when we get brands and local communities on board to fight together and with Nisa, we’re doing just that. With almost 60 partner stores live on our app we’re proud to be helping to ensure that delicious food is being eaten rather than wasted.

“Together, we can create significant impact, and I’m looking forward to seeing many more Nisa stores joining our movement in the future.”

Too Good To Go will be attending the virtual Nisa Expo next month and hope to get more partners engaged in the scheme.

A simple mission

Too Good To Go has a simple mission: to make sure all food gets eaten, not wasted.

In 2016, a group of entrepreneurs witnessed restaurant staff throwing away fresh food. The food’s only problem? It hadn’t sold in time, and no one was around to take it off the restaurant’s hands. The group pioneered a seamless solution: an app that lists businesses’ unsold food so local diners can find, buy and enjoy it.

Magic Bags

Now, thousands of Magic Bags are rescued from businesses such as supermarkets, restaurants, and bakeries every day. The success of the app powers Too Good To Go’s wider efforts to drive a food waste movement, working with schools, industries and governments to build a planet-friendly food system.

Too Good To Go by numbers: 

14 countries

50 million meals saved globally

25 million app installs globally

60,000 partner stores globally

2020 became a registered B-Corp