Food waste. It's becoming such a dire problem you've no doubt heard all the stats.
One third of food produced for human consumption is wasted… approximated 40 percent of fruit and veges grown are wasted….and we've all witnessed the sad sight of a café throwing out a cabinet full of sammies at the end of the day
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But short of taking part in a spot of dumpster diving, how do we combat it?
Enter Foodprint, the new app that's bringing together hungry customers and half price muffins.
The brainchild of founder Michal Garvey, the app gives restaurants and cafes around the city the opportunity to list surplus food they have left at the end of the day for heavily discounted prices - usually 50 percent or more.
For Garvey the concept was a win-win; food suppliers sell stock that was otherwise going to hit the landfill, while hungry shoppers who might not be able to afford regular café prices can get themselves a delicious feed.
Customers order, make their purchase in-app, and collect their food directly from eateries.
A "passionate foodie," Garvey says she believes food should always fulfil its purpose in providing nourishment and enjoyment. However, she notes it's widely accepted that one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted.
"In New Zealand, cafés, restaurants and supermarkets throw out 47,678 tonnes of food annually. That's a huge amount of waste and it's damaging to the environment," she says.
"The app provides a practical, easy-to-use solution."
Eateries that have already partnered with Foodprint include Mexico, Ripe Deli, &Sushi and Little Bird Organics.
Newshub was given the opportunity to have a go on Wednesday, and off the bat the app is remarkably intuitive to use. After extending my location radius to the maximum 5km around me, I was shown a list of foods available to me to buy.
An Asian Pork Belly sandwich from Ripe Deli? $5.50.
A quinoa loaf of bread from Bread and Butter café? $3.88
Seafood sushi from &Sushi? $7.50. (Plus an extra jar of edamame beans from the lovely girls behind the counter.)
I ended up walking away with around $75 worth of food for just over $30. As you go, the app shows you how much you're saving in dollars, as well as in carbon. (3.08kg of carbon saved by me so far - you're welcome planet earth.)
As I clutched my discounted loaves at Bread and Butter Bakery this morning, owner Isobel Pasch told me it was a no-brainer to be a part of the initiative.
"I've been banging on about waste reduction for years it's something that's so important to me and to the core of our business," she said.
"But in hospitality the whole food waste thing is so tricky: you just don't what the day is going to be like. You might be sold out of everything by midday, or you might have nobody show up! So this addresses that business problem.
"It also addresses the problem that a lot of people, whether they be students or families, can't afford access to high quality food. And all food comes with an energy bill, when you waste it, the growing and the labour and the time has all been for nothing. So this app helps fix all those problems."
It's a sentiment echoed by Gemma Heffernan from Grey Lynn stalwart Ripe Deli.
"It's such a great idea; for things we can't keep like sandwiches and baps we do a half-price deal anyway, so it's great way to get the message out there and make it easy for people.
"Anything that stops wasting food and getting it into landfill is something we want to be involved in!"
Garvey is a winner of this year's Good Food Boost, a competition run by the Sustainable Business Networkand ATEED.
The Foodprint app, available from Monday on the Apple App and Google Play Stores, will firstly only be available in Auckland, but has plans to expand nationwide.
Newshub.
