A new report by food rescuing app ‘Too Good Too Go’ investigates consumer and employee behaviours related to eating food-on-the-go and how this impacts food waste. The ‘Too Good Too Go’ app allows food stores to advertise and sell unsold food that would otherwise be wasted. With unsold food being a leading cause of food waste in the hospitality industry, the app has seen considerable engagement helping more than 4,000 businesses reduce their food waste.

The report, entitled ‘Food Waste Has Got to Go’ highlights the problem of food waste in the food-to-go sector. Employees are becoming increasingly concerned about the leftovers and waste their businesses are producing. The report finds that less than half of food-to-go businesses have guidelines that include best practices for mitigating food waste. The report also discusses the hidden costs of food waste. Employees in the food-to-go sector hold concerns over the financial and social implications of wasting food. Consumer’s purchasing relative to food-to-go are shown to be unpredictable and changeable, generating challenges to food management and stocking systems.

Whilst it is disappointing that the research does not have a larger qualitative component to explain some of these trends, the insights on the impact of COVID-19 are interesting. Mixed trends are presented. A third of businesses involved in the research saw food waste increase during lockdown. A quarter of businesses are seeing food waste increase since lockdown ended with a further half of businesses stating that food waste has decrease following lockdown. The report advocates the future role of technology in making further food waste reductions in this sector

The report can be accessed here – https://toogoodtogo.co.uk/en-gb/lp/b2b/foodtogo-industry-report