CHICAGO — You might think you’ve downloaded all the food apps you need. But a company that launched in Chicago over the summer doesn’t want to help you get reservations or figure out where to order delivery. Called Too Good To Go, the app connects you with food from restaurants and grocery stores that would otherwise go to waste.
The prices alone are truly tempting. Some genuinely popular Chicago restaurants frequently have offerings for $4 or $5. If a restaurant or a store has food that is still edible, but would be discarded at the end of the day, it can put it in a bag and sell it on the app.
As much as 40% of food made in the United States is wasted, making it the largest category of material dumped into landfills, according to the Food and Drug Administration. In October, the United Nations estimated 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from wasted food — if food waste were a country, it would be the third-biggest source of the emissions on the planet.
