Are you worried about inflation or are you just worried about climate change?
To quote an old Apple ad, “There’s an app for that.”
Founded in 2015, Danish company Too Good To Go calls itself “the world’s largest surplus food marketplace,” allowing users to search for mystery bags of discounted food from local restaurants. While not knowing exactly what you’re getting can be unsettling for some, the element of surprise is part of the appeal.
The Chicago store followed suit and joined stores in other major U.S. cities in offering the meal bundles in 2021. At least 12 stores in Evanston are now participating in the program.
The problem: food waste
While throwing out a pint of moldy strawberries may seem like a harmless act, food waste throughout the grocery supply chain and at home is a major issue.
According to the Illinois Department of Environmental Protection, discarded food accounts for “20 percent” of the 19 million tons of waste the state landfills each year, “more than any other waste.”
Meanwhile, in landfills, discarded food releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is “25 times more harmful than carbon dioxide,” contributing to global warming and its harmful effects.
Whereas service industry workers and thrifty college students have long scavenged for perishables destined for the trash at closing time (like unclaimed pizza) at little cost, Too Good To Go is effectively using modern technology to match those surplus items with public demand, calling its users “food waste warriors.”
How to use
Once you download the app, select your geographic search area, browse deals from restaurants, bakeries, cafes and other food vendors, and filter results by distance, pick-up time, food type, dietary preferences and more.
Last week, the Roundtable reporter bought a bargain $3.99 ($4.40 with tax) from the Pantry, adjacent to the Lucky Platter on Main Street, the last item left in the store, paid for with a tap of the finger and reserved for pickup any time before 7 p.m.
Soon after, I strolled into the Platter Pantry, showed the cashier my receipt, and was handed a paper bag containing a 7-ounce Moroccan eggplant salad and a boxed ham, egg, and cheese croissant, which made for a tempting late-night snack.
Some sales items have inconvenient pickup times (usually at the end of business hours or on business days) and seem to sell out quickly. For example, I had my eye on a $4 sale item from Deep Purpl, a downtown smoothie place, but wasn’t able to buy it.
Similarly, an article in Eater reports that there is fierce competition among Chicago residents seeking a single bag of Eataly’s surplus pasta (priced at $9.99).
For my second purchase, I chose the lucky bag from West Town Bakery on the corner of Howard and Chicago Ave. It was a great deal, literally.
For $5.50, I could choose from four baked goods: I chose a yeasted “dark matter” doughnut with coffee-flavored icing, a chocolate cream pie with crumbly cookie dough, and two croissants: one almond croissant filled with sweet cream and red berry jam, the other seeded and stuffed with ham and cheese.
Admittedly, what I harvested didn’t make a particularly nutritious meal, but it could have been a snack for days had I not embarrassingly devoured it all by myself.
Participate in the program
Joe Kinsella, general manager of West Town Bakery, tries to donate leftover products and unsold bread to staff and a nearby homeless shelter, but still ends up with a surplus, and he’s grateful that Too Good To Go helps him recoup sunk costs and reduce waste.
“It’s a way to not waste food, and in the business of a bakery you waste a lot of food,” he said. “Because once the bread is done for the day, you throw it away.”
“You could give it a cheaper price,” Kinsella added.
Lucky Platter owner Derek Gaspar also said Too Good To Go helps minimize losses, but because the business has inherently less waste than a bakery, his involvement with the program is “basically zero waste.”
Mystery bags provided by Whole Foods. Photo by Matt Farout.
Here’s what’s inside the Whole Foods bag, which contains five different items. Photo by Matt Farout
The third purchase was from Whole Foods on Chicago Avenue and cost $11.01 including tax and included a mezze platter with stuffed grape leaves, hummus, cucumbers and crackers, a packaged stuffed pulled pork and mac and cheese, sliced turkey breast with Colby Jack cheese and a dish of penne alla vodka with warm Italian sausage. One of the plastic cases was cracked but the food was fine and delicious.
Commercial excess
You may wonder why retailers are being forced to pull these edible products from their shelves, and the main culprit is misunderstandings about food safety and date labeling.
Store managers and consumers alike consider “use by” and “sell by” dates to be expiration dates. However, unlike Cinderella’s carriage, food does not suddenly go bad at a specific time.
Consider that a recently purchased pack of chicken may soon become inedible if left in a hot car for hours, regardless of the “best before” date on the label. But that same pack may still be safe to eat months later if immediately placed in the freezer.
Similarly, a carton of milk may be drinkable past the date stamped on the container — you can still use it in pancake batter, for example, even after it has started to sour.
In reality, date labels on packaged foods, with the notable exception of baby foods, are not regulated but rather determined by manufacturers motivated by the desire to sell alternative products, not to avoid waste.
User feedback
A company representative reportedly said the contents of the surprise bags should be “worth at least three times the asking price,” and indeed, personal experiences and online reviews have been positive enough that some have considered keeping them secret.
According to a Reddit comment by PandasAndLlamas, Great Harvest Bread’s $5.99 bag contained two “very tasty” blueberry scones, one chocolate chip scone, and one cinnamon roll, but one was “a bit disappointing.”
Meanwhile, user Petite_cookie8888 said she felt “so lucky!” after purchasing a $4.99 bag from Bennison’s Bakery, which included 14 doughnuts, four loaves of sourdough bread, a ham and cheese croissant and a loaf of French bread.
Environmental impact
The Too Good To Go app encourages continued participation by providing motivational messages and statistics about the positive impact of keeping food out of landfills.
For example, the three items I purchased not only delivered $36 more in value than they cost, but also avoided about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in energy-related emissions, which the app estimates is the equivalent of 23 kilowatts of electricity, 1,383 phone charges, 30 cups of coffee, or 20 minutes of hot water.
We don’t know if Too Good To Good’s calculations are accurate, or if they significantly reduce the risk of imminent environmental disaster, but the suggestion that by eating a slice of discounted chocolate pie you’re helping to save the planet is a welcome one.
As for the expansion of the program in Evanston, a spokesperson for US-based Too Good To Go told the Roundtable that state, county and city of Chicago usage data is available, but a week later, none has been received.
