The best apps to help you eat well, save money and minimise food waste. We also include a couple of analogue ideas too.

Food, glorious food. One of life’s greatest delights. It’s fun to cook, and even better to eat. But, as our recent #agoodcommunity interviewee and food entrepreneur, Dan Kurzrock, pointed out, globally over one-third of all food is wasted. Waste is never good, and wasting food is bad both morally and environmentally. *Sad face*. 

But fear not! This is the 21st Century so, of course, there are a load of great of apps out there to help combat the issue. From apps that connect you to local restaurants or neighbours, to ones that help you use what you have left in the fridge. Food, glorious apps.

Here are our favourite, and we include one or two analogue ideas too.

Karma

A wholesome development from fellow Swedes! Karma allows you to ‘rescue’ food from bars, cafes and restaurants that would otherwise go to waste. Everything from artisan loaves to Yum Bowls. Available in Sweden, the UK and France. 

Download hier.

Too Good to Go

This one is taking Europe by storm. The app enables cafes, restaurants, hotels, shops and supermarkets to sell unsold food. You won’t know exactly what’s going to be in your order until you pick it up, so it’s a bit of a lucky dip. Always great though, and cheap. Available in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, the Netherlands and US. 

Download hier.

OLIO

This one started in Italy, perhaps. OLIO connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not wasted. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. It can also be used at a platform to trade gardening tools and kitchen appliances. Used in 51 countries worldwide.

Download hier.

Start a community pantry in your building or neighbourhood

COVID-19 has hit a lot of people hard. We were moved and inspired by this apartment building pantry idea. Why don’t more people do this? 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKBFvD-HClR/. 

No Waste

Do you find that you throw away a lot of leftover ingredients? Feel a bit guilty about it? No Waste allows you to easily track, organise and manage the food in your home and allows you to better plan meals and shopping. 

Download hier.

Foodcloud

FoodCloud is a social enterprise whose mission it is to transform surplus food into opportunities to make the world a kinder place. They connect businesses that have surplus food with charities and community groups that need it, thus combatting two issues with one app.

Download hier.

Supercook

Have a load of random food items about to go out of date and wondering what you could do with them? Supercook to the rescue. Simply put in what’s kicking around your kitchen and Supercook will give you some suggested recipes.

Download hier.

Composting

If you’ve cooked a nice meal and have a load of kitchen scraps you’re about to throw in the bin then STOP! They don’t have to binned. Turn them into yummy compost for your plants to enjoy. Here’s our handy guide for how to get started.

There, we think that's every cupboard—sorry, covered! For further eating— sorry, reading— check our editorial on the future of food.