A lot of focus on preventing food waste – NEW app helps save MONEY

The battle to prevent food waste is intense in Denmark. From HRH Princess Marie opening the first Wefood shop in Copenhagen, to restaurants offering leftovers at cheap prices, a new app connects consumers with grocery stores that want to sell surplus food (sell-by date reached items) at reduced prices.

By Bente D. Knudsen   Picture: PR

The initiative for the new app YourLocal comes from two students at CBS, Copenhagen Business School. They gathered a small team to develop a concept, which could help grocery stores dispose of surplus food; items still edible that had reached their sell-by date, thus making them unsellable.

The app is a communication tool, which connects grocery stores with consumers who will happily buy food items that have either reached or are close to reaching their sell-by date. A great way for consumers to save money, and for stores to be compensated for items that would otherwise be thrown out.

Three cities in Denmark and now not only food

Besides Copenhagen, the app can be used also in Aarhus and Aalborg. More than 50,000 consumers have benefited from cheaper grocery shopping at the 400 stores who have joined the concept so far; with latest member the Copenhagen based grocery chain IRMA.

Apart from winning the funding competition, Seed Discovery Day 2015, awarding the founders funds to continue developing the concept, volunteers play an important part too in keeping the non-profit organisation running.

“As we got started, we couldn’t see any rational connection between the fight against food waste and charging consumers for using our app. We are all ardent supporters of the fight against food waste, says one of the founders, Alexander Sund-Nielsen to the CBS newspaper cbsobserver.dk “Using the app is also a great way for smaller stores to reach local consumers and to promote themselves,” he adds.

YourLocal started by focusing on food waste, however other product categories have been added, for instance the local theatre offering last minute unsold seats or your local hairdresser offering cancellations at a discount.

Unfortunately only available in Danish, you can read more about the app and download it here:yourlocal.org

Read other articles about “second-hand” food here