This week, we’re marking Food Waste Action Week, the UK’s biggest annual push to cut down on food waste. It’s a time when businesses, government bodies and global partners come together to spotlight just how much food waste impacts our planet, and the actions needed to really put the issue of food waste on the table.
With this important initiative in mind, it’s crucial not only to recognise the environmental damage caused by food waste but also to champion effective ways society can tackle it. Did you know that food waste is responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide? It’s an alarming statistic, but thankfully it also means that reducing food waste is one of the most impactful and meaningful ways we can help our planet.
At Too Good To Go, saving food and fighting food waste is our core mission. We aim to inspire and empower everyone to join this fight with us. Our app connects consumers with local businesses that have surplus food – making sure unsold items end up on tables instead of in landfills. In the UK alone, we’ve teamed up with over 40,000 partners – from the likes of Aldi and Morrisons to beloved spots like Greggs and Costa, as well as independent stores, cafés, bakeries and restaurants.
Together, our UK community has saved over 40 million “Surprise Bags” of food from going to waste – that’s about 121.5 million kilograms of CO2e emissions avoided! To put it in perspective: that’s equivalent to what nearly 16,000 UK citizens emit annually! But let’s not forget: tackling food waste isn’t just about saving food from going to waste at the end stage; it’s an issue across every level of the supply chain.
With an estimated 1.4 million tonnes of food wasted annually at the manufacturing stage, to make a substantial impact, it is vital that consumers and businesses take decisive action to minimise food waste further up the supply chain. That’s why we’ve created solutions like our Too Good To Go Parcels delivery function – recently rolled out in the UK at the end of 2024 — a channel helping some of the nation’s favourite brands manage surplus inventory at the manufacturing stage and allowing our dedicated app user base to save these Parcels of food.
Saving a Too Good To Go Parcel is just as easy as saving a Surprise Bag. This practical channel allows consumers to receive food from well-loved brands whose surplus is often a result of demand fluctuations, packaging changes, or even cosmetic standards. This approach minimises waste while maximising recovered profits for businesses, as well as providing consumers with value through reduced prices.
Through Parcels, Too Good To Go streamlines the distribution process by purchasing surplus items directly from brands, creating a sustainable retail channel that alleviates the logistical burden of surplus management. Brands simply ship their products to our packing facility in the Midlands, where our logistics partner, CEVA Logistics, manages the rest. Consumers can then purchase a Parcel through the Too Good To Go app to be delivered straight to their door.
Having recently achieved the milestone of distributing 100,000 Too Good To Go Parcels across the UK since just November 2024, our new offering clearly fills a vital gap in the fight against food waste at the manufacturing level. To date, more than 3.2 million Parcels have been saved globally, preventing 51.9 million kgs of CO2 emissions and conserving 15 billion litres of water – the equivalent to saving 11.6 million meals.
While solutions like these are a promising start to fighting against food waste, sustaining this progress is dependent on continued awareness and shared responsibility across the entire supply chain. The responsibility to prevent food waste rests equally with everyone and while manufacturers are key to this effort, everyone has a role to play in ensuring a more sustainable future.
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