Australia wastes roughly 7.6 million tonnes of food each year. That’s about 312 kilograms per person. Apps that connect consumers with discounted surplus food have been pitched as part of the solution. But do they actually work in practice?

I spent a month testing the four biggest food waste apps available in Melbourne. Here’s what I found.

Too Good To Go

What it does: Lets you buy “surprise bags” of surplus food from restaurants, cafes, and supermarkets at about a third of the retail price.

My experience: I bought twelve surprise bags over four weeks. The quality ranged from genuinely excellent (a bag of pastries from a good bakery in Brunswick that would have cost $35, for $12) to deeply underwhelming (a bag from a chain cafe that contained two sad sandwiches and a muffin that was clearly from yesterday).

The good: When it works, it’s brilliant. The bakery bags and restaurant bags tend to be the best value. You’re getting real food that just didn’t sell today.

The bad: The “surprise” element means you can’t plan meals around it. You might get three loaves of bread when you only need one. And availability is unpredictable — the best bags sell out within minutes of going live.

Verdict: Worth using if you’re flexible and near participating businesses. Not a replacement for actual grocery shopping.

YWaste

What it does: An Australian-made app focused on connecting consumers with surplus food from restaurants and food businesses.

My experience: More limited selection than Too Good To Go, but the quality was consistently higher. The app is smaller, so there were fewer options in my area, but what was available was good. A Malaysian restaurant near my place had surplus laksa and roti for $8. That was dinner sorted.

The good: Feels more curated. The businesses on the platform seem genuinely engaged with reducing waste rather than just dumping their leftovers.

The bad: Coverage is patchy outside inner Melbourne and Sydney. If you’re in the suburbs, options dry up fast.

Verdict: Good app, needs more businesses to join.

FlashFood

What it does: Partners with supermarkets to sell products approaching their best-before dates at steep discounts.

My experience: This is the most practical of the lot. You can see exactly what’s available — no surprises. I bought meat, dairy, and produce at 50-70 percent off, picked it up at the designated section of the supermarket, and used it the same day.

The good: You know what you’re getting. The savings are real. And the food is perfectly fine — best-before dates are not use-by dates.

The bad: Limited to participating supermarkets. The stock changes constantly, so you need to check the app frequently. Not available in all areas.

Verdict: The most useful app for regular grocery savings. I’ll keep using this one.

Olio

What it does: A food sharing platform where individuals and businesses can list surplus food for free collection.

My experience: Mixed. The concept is great — a community-based approach to food waste. I collected some excellent sourdough from a home baker, some excess produce from someone’s garden, and a batch of curry from someone who’d cooked too much.

The good: Free food. Genuine community building. It feels good to participate.

The bad: Quality and availability are completely unpredictable. Some listings are sketchy — I wouldn’t take home-cooked food from just anyone. There’s an element of trust required that not everyone is comfortable with.

Verdict: Best for adventurous types who like community exchange. Not reliable enough to be a primary strategy.

The bigger picture

These apps are a positive development. They’re redirecting food from landfill to people who’ll eat it. But they’re not solving the food waste problem. They’re treating a symptom.

The real waste happens upstream — in farm-level overproduction, in supermarket cosmetic standards that reject perfectly good produce for being the wrong shape, and in supply chain inefficiencies that mean food travels thousands of kilometres and arrives past its best.

Some interesting work is happening on the supply chain side. Australian food tech companies are using AI to better predict demand and reduce overordering. AI consultants in Sydney are working with food distributors on exactly this kind of optimisation, and the early results are promising — some businesses reporting 15-20 percent reductions in surplus stock.

But for now, these apps are a decent tool in the toolkit. Use them. Save some money. Eat food that would otherwise be wasted. Just don’t pretend it’s fixing the system.