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Every evening Raquel García approaches her trusted supermarket with enthusiasm. But when he arrives, he does not take his cart or wander the shelves in search of new supplies. Instead, he picks up the surprise pack and goes home. Milk, chicken, yogurt or salad are some of the products that you discover when you open your package. "Every day I take a pack from the supermarket. The benefit is tremendous; I have noticed that
my budget for food at home has been reduced, I save half when shopping,
literally, and for a large family it is very important, since in my house only has a salary, "explains Raquel.
In September 2020, he entered the new world of apps to avoid food waste.
Too Good To Go, Nice to eat you, The hive that says yes
or
I don't waste
are some of the best known apps in Spain.
Raquel discovered them through a Facebook ad, downloaded one to test, and has not considered abandoning them since.
"It is no longer just savings, it is the good we do to the environment,
which is the main basis of this application," adds this young long-term stop-over.
A surprise pack that Raquel has collected thanks to these apps.RG
Since
the pioneer app
Too Good To Go
was downloaded
, Marian Gil has been able to indulge from time to time and consume products from expensive establishments at affordable prices without losing quality. "You just have to be attentive to the app, see a pack that fits the need I have and save it!", He explains. And it is precisely
"saving food" that these new technologies achieve.
It all started in 2016 in Denmark.
A group of friends who went to a buffet noticed how much perfectly good food ended up in the trash.
Shortly after Too Good To Go was born.
Currently
more than three million people who use it in Spain
have already prevented 3.7 million food packs from ending up in containers.
"We help the planet with the use and we do not waste anything," adds Marian, who used this service for the first time in the pandemic.
However, he feels that not all locals act with the same loyalty.
"Lately, some establishments have joined that make sales disguised offering products that they sell at normal prices, pretending that they are saving food," he says.
SURPRISE PACKS
For this 30-year-old,
the essence of these apps lies in the intrigue of the surprise packs.
In each food package, the establishments introduce the variety of products left over from the day that they can no longer sell the next. But, as Marian warns, "they are not orders a la carte" in which you know for sure what they contain. However, once you know the locals, this task becomes easier. "At Dunkin Coffee they always usually give 7 or 8 donuts. In this case, the curiosity is in ... what flavors will they touch me? That's the fun!", He adds.
Every year in Spain 7.7 tons of food is thrown away,
which makes it the seventh country in the EU that wastes the most food.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, each Spaniard throws 30.93 kilos of food in the trash.
As stated by the FAO (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), if we saved just a quarter of the food that is wasted,
it could feed 870 million hungry people.
One of the reasons for this waste is the lack of knowledge between the expiration date and the best before date.
The latter indicates how long the product is at its best to ingest, but not its maximum consumption date.
These types of apps not only 'save food' but also try to inform their users so that they can do it autonomously.
Several times a week, Alfredo Antón also tries new foods thanks to this surprise effect. But his impulse to download the app came from personal experiences: "I have been in hospitality environments and
I know perfectly well the amounts of food that are wasted,
simply because it is impossible to calculate what you are going to sell and it is always better to overproduce," he says. . Thus, this 25-year-old wanted to help prevent this waste while taking the opportunity to save money. He just hopes that more locals will join in: "it is a good proposition for both producers and consumers."
Young people between the ages of 30 and 45 are the ones who are most familiar with these apps and the ones who go the most every day to find their pack at
La joy de la huerta
,
Juan Manuel Iraola's greengrocer.
In April he opened his business in Pinar del Rey (Madrid) and in just one month he already opted for these apps.
"It is a double-edged sword, you
take the opportunity not to throw food, and to make yourself known a little,
as people repeat."
Juan Manuel, user of these apps, in his greengrocer "La joy de la Huerta" .EG
Each day it delivers between three and four packs with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables at a minimum price of three euros and it recognizes that it always puts more than the weight established by the application.
"Thus, they take advantage of the food and I can recover some clientele, because the people who place the orders are not usually a regular buyer."
In fact, fruits and vegetables are the world's most wasted foods.
More and more businesses are joining these applications.
Although many are large chains, there are also small retailers: more than 9,000 businesses are already part of Too Good To Go.
Before these technologies existed, Isabel Padilla already avoided throwing away the pastries from her pastry shop at all costs: "I've been giving it to a girl who sells next door for years; I put it in a small package and I give it to her."
Other times, wait for the trash to be taken out and put some buns on the lid.
When he enters the store they have already disappeared.
Although he continues to distribute these products, he takes advantage of the large surpluses of
Marpadi
, his
Bravo Murillo
pastry shop
, to make a pack and upload it to the application.
"You do not win, because it is very cheap, but
at least you cover some of the cost of the raw material, and above all we do not throw it away.
You are doing a good work; whoever buys it is taking advantage of an offer and I do not lose so much," explains Isabel.
Marpadi pastry shop, Isabel.EG's business
"I always talk and share good experiences with my acquaintances," explains Marta M., who started using these apps as soon as she was implanted in Spain.
Since then save food, save and live the intrigue of surprise packs.
However, he considers that certain users have forgotten the essence of the app: avoiding waste.
"Many times I find myself in disagreement with reviews that people put in the networks. They look for bargains and savings forgetting the part of 'saving' food: if you order a pack in the supermarket, normal that the expiration dates are the next day! "explains Marta, 44 years old.
Several times a month he orders packs from Alcampo, Carrefour and, above all, from greengrocers where the orders are huge.
After having lived it for many years in her jobs, Alba Fernández, 27, can no longer allow herself to throw away a single plate of food.
"If we all used these types of apps, all this food would not end up in the trash and we would be more sustainable."
On her own Instagram account @albitrips, Alba encourages her followers to eat a healthy diet, without ultra-processed and with simple, fast and very original recipes.
Alba, a regular user of the Phenix app. @ Albatrips
Consider that with these apps, small businesses could make a small profit and families that make it to the end of the month could get a very varied purchase.
She uses
Phenix, a
popular app in Barcelona that fulfills the same function, and also allows donations to associations and charities.
But best of all is the emotional reward of feeling that you are doing the right thing: "you end up being aware that with your purchase the food will not end up in the garbage and that comforts you morally making you feel very good."
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