Food Waste

Fighting Food Waste: Olio Food Sharing App

Food waste is a really big problem with over £12.5 Billion worth of food being thrown away in the UK every year. From Farm level to retail to the householder, we are all throwing away good food that’s absolutely fine to eat. And it’s not just costing our pockets; it’s costing the plant too. While you may not feel you can do much to tackle the food waste problems at a farming or retail levels, the good news is that there are a lot of things we can all do to help prevent surplus good food from being sent to the landfill at a household level.

One way that my husband and I save money and save on food waste is by planning out meals for the week or for a few days ahead of time. That way we know what we will use and what we need to make our planned meals. However even the best laid plans can go awry, thankfully there is some nifty new technology around to help us out.

2015 has seen the arrival of Olio, an app to help households to find and connect with other households and local shops in their area to share surplus food and prevent waste. Food shared can be advertised either for free or at reduced prices. Holders of the app with food to spare take a snap of the food available and upload with a description and pick up details. People looking for food can search for food available, request items of interest and arrange pick up. Food items shared vary from local shops with produce close to ‘use by’ dates, bread from markets and bakeries, individual people clearing out dried food from their cupboards to gardeners with more produce than they can use up themselves.

This great app helps people to connect with the local community, grab a bargain and save good food from going to waste. Download the app for Android through Google Play or IOS at the iTunes App store.

Having read some of the reviews for this app it seems it is still in it’s infancy, with users mainly limited to the NW of London at the moment. Otherwise it seems to have been well received. I’d love to see this app succeed and can see it making a big difference, I hope that you do too. For more info head to the website and Check out this interview with Olio and London Live.