Food waste is one of the most pressing problems of this century. Could an app help?
It is estimated that as much as a third of the food we produce becomes waste, and the average Lithuanian throws away around 57 kg of food every year.
“If food produced and not used were a country, it would be bigger than China,” says Margarita Gaišytė, who works with Olio, a food-sharing app that could help address the problem.
“The app is free and very easy to use. You just take a picture of the food you want to give away, upload it to the app, describe it in a few sentences and wait for a request. It’s like sharing with your neighbour. You see a map on the app of how far the food is from you,” she tells LRT TV.
The food-sharing app has been operating in Lithuania for several years now, but has not been promoted very actively until now.
“The app has been running since 2016, but it was completely unknown and inactive. When we started talking about it three weeks ago, it only had 1,000 users. With zero budget and a loud voice, we grew to almost 3,000 users in 10 days,” says Gaišytė.
The food portions given out show that the app really works. According to Gaišytė, more than 60 million servings of food have been shared worldwide. Although the numbers are lower in Lithuania, new requests are growing, she says.
“A month ago, I didn’t see any requests on the app. But now I get daily notifications that food is being uploaded. At the moment, up to 50 offers are uploaded per day. Most of the time it is fruit, berries or vegetables, because they spoil faster, and groceries. I also see gourmet products such as special chocolates or seeds,” says the Olio representative.
There are other ways to minimise food waste, Gaišytė adds.
“The first tip is to never go to a supermarket hungry. Also, keep a shopping list and challenge yourself to make dinner from leftovers. When planning your holiday, think rationally about whether you will use everything you have in the fridge. And of course, don’t be a perfectionist. If we have an apple that is already less than beautiful and less than perfect, let’s make a cake or juice. Let’s just use our imagination,” she says.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
