Too Good To Go: Tackling Food Waste, One Magic Bag At A Time
Too Good To Go is one of the best UK apps that is changing the way we think about food waste in the UK, and it’s making a real difference! Since its launch in 2016, this helpful app has connected people with local restaurants, cafes, and shops to help them buy delicious, surplus food at a fraction of the regular price. Imagine rescuing meals that would otherwise end up in the bin—all while saving some money!
With over 30 million meals saved and a community of over 13 million users, Too Good To Go is more than just an app; it’s a movement. Users can discover “Surprise Bags or, as they're known on the app, 'Magic Bags' filled with surplus, unsold food, turning what could be food waste into a tasty surprise bag that can help feed the family. It’s potentially a win-win: you get to enjoy great value food at a bargain while also helping have a positive impact on the environment and food waste.
Food waste is a significant issue for the planet, and the food industry generates tonnes of edible food that goes to landfill every day. Too Good To Go is a free app designed to help tackle this problem by offering consumers the chance to grab leftover food from local businesses at a discounted price. This blog post explores how the app works and shares our 'Magic Bag' experience. We'll also discuss how the app is helping to solve the issue of food waste, food poverty, and business profitability. Keep reading to learn more about this innovative app and how it can impact the planet and local communities.
The issue of food waste and excess food within the food industry, whether in grocery stores, local restaurants, or coffee shops, is a significant concern. By removing the tonnes of edible food going to landfill and the positive environmental impact that has, and using those unsold items to feed local people, you help solve food waste, food poverty, and business profitability, which can make a significant impact on so many people and, of course, the planet!
How Does Too Good To Go Work?
Local shops and restaurants offer unsold/surplus food at a reduced price to save on throwing out the food that hasn't sold at the end of the day. The food is reduced to an average of a third of the regular cost and added to the Too Good To Go app. App users can then browse the app's user-friendly interface to see what's available, and if they'd like to pick up a Magic bag, they can then reserve and pay for their bag via the app and then collect the bag at the pre-set time as determined by the business they are collecting from. Collection times will vary wildly depending on the business. It could be something you can grab on the way home from your 9 to 5 job, or it might be something you'd need to collect as the business is closing, which, if it was a restaurant, might be quite late in the evening, but the app will tell you the collection times before you commit to paying for your Magic Bag.
Once you arrive at the local business, show the staff member your order number and then swipe the app to say you've collected the Magic Bag. You're given the bag, and off you go, so it's usually a hassle-free experience!
Too Good To Go Delivery
In October 2024, Too Good To Go added a delivery option to the app. This offers specific products that you order in bulk and will be shipped directly to you. The products at launch ranged from cases of Coca-Cola bottled products to cases of milk alternative products, bulk pet food, bulk amounts of protein powder, coffee syrup, rice, and even alcohol-free gin!
Most of the products had a shorter-than-normal shelf life, perhaps a month or two. Some were dated for several more months, and they seem to have been added as a way for businesses to clear products in bulk that have a short shelf life that perhaps their normal selling partners wouldn't accept.
There are some random products to be had, and the listing shows how much you'll be saving buying this way. For example, a case of 20 Coke Zero 500ml bottles was offered at £19.99 (with a 1-month shelf life), with £1.98 delivery, so they work out at £1.10 delivered. The product suggests the RRP cost for 20 bottles usually would be £39.00, so £1.95 per bottle, which is probably more or less what you'd pay per bottle in the shops, so if you do buy a lot of this product, you would likely make a saving.
It is a good way to buy a bulk amount of something you buy a lot of. For many, the offers may not be that relevant to their needs or money-saving journey, but the app shows that these products are selling, so I guess there is a demand!
What's In the Magic Bag?
These Magic Bags of food could contain anything! You won't know in advance what you'll get; it's a surprise! Why is it a surprise, you ask? This is because the stores keep track of the sell-by dates of the products they sell and will try to use those items up before the expiration dates become an issue. If they have too much food to use, they will then add this extra food to the Magic Bag for app users to collect and use. The local food businesses won't necessarily know what's left over till they make the bags up, which is often just before your collection time, as they won't know in advance what's sold and what hasn't, so it's usually a last-minute selection of items added to the bag.
This can be exciting but also a problem for people getting a bag to plan meals because, quite simply, you can't! It's always going to be hit-and-miss, if I'm honest, as the businesses don't know what they'll have left over to add to the bags and the variety of items that will be left over, and this means that you Too Good To Go user might walk away with a bag of tasty treats, maybe healthy fruits, takeaway meals, grocery staples, tasty unsold snacks, maybe a bag of their favourite foods and at really affordable prices. Still, equally, you could walk away with less desirable items and not have a great experience!
If you walked away with a whole bag of bread, maybe an entire bag of just lettuce or a big bag of sandwiches with that day's expiry date, perhaps a pizza with the worst toppings you could imagine, would you be happy? I suspect not, but that's the reality; you won't know until you get the bag what you are taking home with you, and although many of the bags I've received over the years have been great, I've also had some rubbish bags that ultimately might have been a bargain price but were not used to their maximum potential because the contents weren't something we as a family use, or might be able to use given the short shelf life of the product, which therefore isn't the good value we'd hoped for.
That said, every Magic Bag is different, so you might not get the best bag today, but you could get another bag tomorrow, and it's amazing. It's literally like spinning a roulette wheel; who knows what you'll end up with!
Plan your storage options!
So, let's say, as an example, you get given a big bag of short-dated meat from a store; you might look to freeze it or perhaps cook it up for eating that day, perhaps cooking it and then freeze it for another time and that's nice and easy to deal with, but let's say you ended up with a big bag of sandwiches dated that day, what would you do with them? Sure, you could eat some, and the sandwiches would likely still be okay the next day. You might be able to freeze some of them, but there are only so many sandwiches a person can eat/store!
Most of the time, it's a selection of items received, so the sandwich example is less likely but still worth keeping in the back of your mind. Still, I've collected bags of sandwiches before (some of which I could freeze), and if I'm honest, they were a bit of a disappointment, not a complete loss, but still a bit disappointing! Obviously, I would have much rather received bags of fresh fruit or general grocery produce as they give you a more diverse range of options of ways to use the food, but that's what the anti-food waste app is all about; it's a great opportunity to stop food being wasted, and hopefully, you can produce delicious meals from it, but that's never guaranteed!
I worked for Morrisons for a couple of years as a way to earn some extra money when I was furloughed during the COVID lockdowns, and one of my tasks was to make up the Too Good To Go Magic Bags. I've made up a huge amount of bags in my time. I would always do my utmost to make sure the bags offered the customer the widest possible selection of food to give the customer the best chance of making some quality meals at a super affordable price and in a sustainable way. Still, you can only put in what you have available, and if we only had crates of lettuce to put in the bags, then that's what went in the bags! That was pretty rare to be in that situation, but it happened but most often I was able to make sure there was a selection of items such as meat, dairy products, fruit, vegetables and bread to be able to make the bag the best possible value for the customer, and at the same time make sure that as little food waste went to the landfill as possible.
I've seen many social media posts from people who've not gotten what they hoped for and have a little rant. Still, they are quickly shot down by the community of waste warriors and reminded that they need to remember that the app is there to help solve the food waste problem of tonnes of food waste going into bins unnecessarily. It can't be expected to be an alternative to weekly food; it's just a way to grab surprise bags of perfectly edible food and a great way to reduce food waste.
The service has really gained in popularity over the last few years, with more and more Too Good To Go partner stores, such as convenience stores, restaurants, and supermarkets, signing up to the app to offer the local community a chance to grab a great deal. Big brands such as Costa, Lidl, Spar, Morrisons, Nisa, and many, many more are getting involved.
My 'Magic Bag Experience'
I grabbed a "Magic Bag" from a convenience store some months ago and wasn't massively impressed. The savings based on the RRP weren't that good, and although I did get a selection of items, they were all a bit random. Sadly, a fair bit went in the bin, as I couldn't find a way to use them. I'm a qualified chef, and I like to think that I can come up with a 'Ready, Steady, Cook gameshow type meal from a bag of miscellaneous food, but I struggled to be able to make good use of the food, which then worked out as poor value for what I paid and also did nothing to help tackle climate change!
I've used the app many times since then and had reasonably good experiences, and when I saw a bag available from a local Sainsbury's convenience store, I decided to give it a whirl!
My hope for this bag, as it was coming from Sainsbury's, which offers quality, fresh food and a wide selection, was pretty positive. However, as this location is pretty much a motorway service station, I did run the risk of a bag of sandwiches, which was a worry, but I'm pleased to say that's not what I got!
I paid for my bag via PayPal, and the app advised me that I could collect it between 7 pm and 9 pm. I went and grabbed it at around 7.30 pm. I went to the cash desk and told them I had a Too Good To Go order to collect. I gave the cashier the reference number for the order, and he popped out the back and grabbed my bag for me. The whole process was straightforward and streamlined.
My first impression was a good one! The bag felt heavy, clearly not sandwiches, and pretty bulky, which was quite exciting. I took my daughter with me, and once I was fleeced out of a Starbucks (Located next door), hot chocolate by her, I grabbed a festive 'Gingerbread Latte, ( Ok so the cost of the coffee clearly wiped out any savings we made on the 'Magic Bag', but this was just an experiment, and it was nice to spend some time with my daughter), we headed home to check out our haul!
This is what I got. I paid £4.00 for the bag and got about £12.00 worth of food. I received:
3x Packs of raspberries
1x two pack of Bramley apple crumbles
1x Bunch of spring onions
1x Pack of 4 beef burgers
1x Tub of salsa
1x Pack of Petit Filous
2x Packs of wafer-thin chicken
1x Jumbo Swiss roll
All in all, it was a pretty decent selection of products. Everything was dated for the same day, and many had yellow stickers stuck on them. Items that went to clearance and hadn't sold were placed in the bags. That's fair enough; after all, that's the idea of the service: to avoid food waste. Normally, if they hadn't sold, they would have been thrown away, so by my buying this bag, food waste has been reduced! Job done!
The food items were fine and in an edible condition. Everything apart from the salsa, spring onions and Swiss roll went in the freezer for use at a later date. The onions and salsa weren't freezable, so they went in the fridge. Still, if I'm honest, the salsa wasn't used, which is a shame, and eats into the value of the bag and is against the principle of avoiding food waste, but I did use everything else up, so all in all, that's a positive result.
If you follow my blog or have read any of my previous posts, you will know that my favourite mission in life is grabbing yellow sticker bargains, and that will remain my way to try and save food from waste and grab a bargain. The reason for this is two-fold:
Yellow sticker deals are, on the whole, a bit cheaper than the reductions I got on this bag.
Most importantly, yellow sticker items allow me to buy exactly what I want/need rather than taking a gamble on what I will get in a bag!
That said, I do think this is an easy way to grab a deal. What you get will depend on the company from which you get the food. After all, I got my bag from a convenience store, but with so many restaurants on the app, chances are you could be grabbing a slap-up meal for your money.
My daughter uses the app more than I do these days. She lives close to several restaurants on the Too Good To Go app, so she often grabs a late meal from one of the restaurants. Some of them know her now and give her some free extras or let her go to the buffet and choose what she wants. She loves it, so it's definitely an app for all ages!
In a world where food waste is a pressing issue, Too Good To Go offers a simple yet powerful solution that benefits both our wallets and the environment. By embracing this app, you’re not just saving money on delicious meals but also playing a vital role in reducing food waste and supporting local businesses. So it's well worth trying!
You should also check out Olio for a different spin on food waste apps as well; all the food is free, and you can choose what you want. I've written about Olio and how it works on the blog here.
The Too Good To Go app is free to download, and you can do so directly from the Too Good To Go website or the app store.