Surplus food app working to combat waste, affordability in Ottawa

Too Good to Go, a surplus food marketplace app founded in Denmark, is partnering with local businesses and chains across Ottawa — now collaborating with Whole Foods Market, in efforts to tackle food waste.

The app features food items from a variety of restaurants and grocers across Ottawa, including Metro, Tim Hortons, INS Market, Shawarma King, Marcello’s Market, African Grill, Pizza Pizza, Yummy Touch Kitchen and more.

Consumers with the Too Good to Go app can save food while saving money, where businesses add same-day food items that didn’t sell in-store, listed for a reduced price on the app, wrote Too Good to Go in a news release.

This works to prevent food waste, while improving food affordability, said the company.

“When food gets thrown away, it’s put into a landfill and then typically takes around 25 years to decompose, contributing to rising temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions,” Sarah Soteroff, spokesperson for Too Good To Go, said.

Whole Foods added to list

As 2025 begins, Too Good to Go continues to expand across Canada, adding all Whole Food Market locations to the app. This includes Ottawa’s Whole Foods Market location in Lansdowne Park on Bank Street.

“Our ultimate goal is to be as sustainable as possible and to provide businesses with an avenue to make sure that food ends up with people and in their bellies, and not in the garbage,” she noted.

“Teaming up with Whole Foods Market to fight food waste in Canada is a milestone moment for us,” said Andrea Li, Country Director of Too Good To Go Canada, adding “Together, we’re giving people an easy way to access high-quality fresh food, at a reduced cost.”

In this new partnership with Whole Foods Market, the store is now offering surprise bags of surplus food, where consumers can purchase more affordable food and prevent food waste.

Consumers across Ottawa can reserve two types of Whole Foods Market surprise bags, including prepared-food surprise bags containing soups and ready-to-eat meals and bakery surprise bags containing extra bread, muffins, cookies and more.

As an example of cost savings, prepared-food surprise bags are available on the app for $9.99 — valued at $30 — and bakery surprise bags are priced at $6.99, with $21 worth of baked goods.

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Data shows Ottawans want to support local businesses

Since Too Good To Go launched in Ottawa in June 2022, nearly 300,000 meals have been saved from 470 local businesses, the company said in an email to CityNews.

This includes local businesses such as Pure Kitchen, Farinella, and The Piggy Market, as well as Canada-wide businesses — including Maverick’s, Metro and Tim Hortons.

“What we like to do is make sure that it’s not just the chains and there’s a good mix of local businesses (included in the app),” said Soteroff. “Number one, we want to support local businesses and it’s helpful for them to have a way to recoup lost revenue by not having to throw food away.”

According to Too Good To Go’s latest survey with Léger, 1 in 3 Ottawans intend to buy imperfect produce or surplus food from restaurant and stores in 2025.

Since the app was introduced in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, analysis has shown that while local consumers are loyal to restaurants, there is also interest in being more sustainable, explained Soteroff.

An estimated 185,000 meals have been saved in the region — 2.4 times more than in 2023, according to the data. Additionally, the most popular category of stores in the region, with the highest number of meals saved, are supermarket followed by coffeehouse.

The company has learned that Ottawa consumers are adventurous eaters, interested in trying out new foods and following new trends, while still consuming those staple food items.

“That’s where we come in, you can get your staples by shopping with us, but at a lower cost and consumers are freed up to buy those trendy items or try out a new restaurant,” Soteroff added.