Food waste is a problem in Sask.; a new app could help change that
Tim Shultz carefully places three cobs of corn, some fennel, muffins and a lollipop into a brown paper bag.
The food has been available on the shelves on Shultz’s Local Market grocery outlet in Regina’s Warehouse District for a while. And although it’s been replaced by newer, fresher food, it’s still good enough to consume.
The food will instead be sold at a discounted price on an app called Too Good To Go — a platform that helps reduce food waste from grocery retailers and restaurants.
The app launched in Canada in 2021, but just came to Regina and Saskatoon in August.
Shultz is one of around 60 retailers in the province who use the app.
“Waste is something that has always bothered me,” said Shultz. “I just hate throwing out food and then, obviously there’s a dollar value associated with that as well.”
He estimates that even after he would give some still-edible food to a commercial kitchen in his building to create soups and sandwiches — and to a farm where goats would consume the food — he would still throw out between 25 and 50 pounds of food per week.
Shultz and other businesses that use the app can put their packages of random food items on the app to sell to customers looking for discounted food — usually at about one-third of the regular price.
Sarah Soteroff, a spokesperson for Too Good To Go, told CBC the app has seen significant uptake in the two to three weeks since it launched in the province Aug. 3.
“We’ve already saved 1,000 meals,” said Soteroff. “We’re always welcoming more [businesses]. If you’re a grocery store, if you’re a bakery, if you sell prepared goods, anywhere that … has surplus food can be sold on the app.”
Food waste a problem for environment
A 2020 report from the federal government showed Saskatchewan produced the third most food waste per capita in Canada — at 191 kilograms.
Joanne Fedyk, executive director of the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council, said food is harmful to the environment once it hits the trash bin.
“If it ends up in the landfill where there’s no oxygen, then it produces methane,” said Fedyk. “That is one of the more harmful greenhouse gasses.”
A staggering amount of the food we buy in this country each year is wasted and a lot of that food, which is still good enough to eat, comes from grocery stores and restaurants. Now there’s a new tool for retailers to keep that waste down and help their customers save cash.
Methane is produced when bacteria in the organic matter break down and are piled under dirt in landfills. A 2020 inventory of greenhouse gasses in Canada found the waste industry as a whole produces 28 per cent of methane emissions.
Regina and Saskatoon are both in the process of launching residential green bin programs for food and yard waste, and Saskatoon is enacting policy to require businesses that produce food and yard waste to have separate bins to divert it from landfills.
Although she hasn’t used it herself, Fedyk is optimistic about Too Good To Go reducing food waste. She said there are other ways it can be reduced, though, such as being smarter about best-before dates.
“The fact that it says ‘best before’ does not mean that it expires after that date,” said Fedyk. “Best before just means that’s it’s peak but … it doesn’t mean it’s unsafe.”
Impacts on food security
John Bailey, CEO of the Regina Food Bank, is also hopeful about what food waste apps like Too Good To Go could mean for people who use his organization.
“We shouldn’t confuse it with solving food insecurity in any way,” said Bailey.
“But if it means that folks that are struggling to make ends meet are able to purchase [food] at a reduced price instead of visiting a food bank, we’re all for it.”
Bailey said it will take time to see exactly what impact the app has.
Wanda Martin, an associate professor in the college of nursing at the University of Saskatchewan, isn’t sure it will have much of an impact on people who can’t afford food in the first place.
“The process is that you get a surprise bag [of food],” said Martin. “Putting money down for something you don’t know what it’s going to be and how well you can consume that, that’ll be a bit of a challenge for people that I am most concerned about — the people who are using charity food systems.”
Martin — who studies the link between food waste and food security — said she’s seen other food waste companies donate food from grocery stores to charity food groups.
Soteroff says Too Good To Go encourages retailers who have partnerships with food donation programs to continue to do so, but notes a lot of surplus food can’t be given away because it’s not known how quickly it will be used before it goes bad.
She said Too Good To Go has a way to show people the charities closest to their location, and they can donate money within the app.
Back at Local Market in Regina, Tim Shultz estimates he’s filled about 20 to 25 orders in the first couple of weeks of using the app.
His bags of food are selling fast.
“Within two or three minutes they’re sold,” said Shultz. “One of the people came to pick up and she said ‘These are harder to get than Taylor Swift tickets.'”
