Coop Denmark is stepping up the campaign against food waste using a mobile app for its customers.
The retailer, which is owned by its 1.4 million members, is using the online platform Too Good to Go, where customers can buy items at low price that would otherwise be thrown out.
It will roll out the scheme in 40 Kvickly, SuperBrugsen and Daglibrugsen stores, with another 60 to follow up by the end of the year. Items include bread, and pastries and other food products which are not too old to consume and will be sold at up to 75% below their normal price.
“Over the last three years we have been working to reduce our food waste, and reduced the price of items when approaching the expiration date,” said the co-op’s CSR director Signe Frese.
“We can still do a lot and would therefore like to work together to help both us and our customers to reduce food waste,” she added. “Too Good To Go is a great sympathetic concept that we believe many of our customers also think about.”
Henrik Stampe, chief sales officer at Too Good To Go, said: “We are very pleased to strengthen our partnership with Coop, thereby contributing to the efforts to combat food waste in Denmark. We are confident that this co-operation will be very positive for Coop and its customers across Denmark.”
A social enterprise, Too Good to Go was founded in Denmark at the end of 2015 by a group of friends and has already expanded to five other countries, including the UK. It has helped to redistribute one million meals and saved 1,200 tonnes of food from being wasted.
Over 6,000 tonnes of edible food is wasted by UK restaurants every year. The app has been launched in London, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester and Brighton, where customers can buy a full meal for just £2 and collect it from the eaterie around closing time.
The app has already prevented more than 14,000 meals in the UK from becoming waste.
