Waste not want not: Apps offer path to reducing Melbourne's food waste

Boris Portnoy hates throwing his surplus bread in the bin, but until recently the baker and owner of All Are Welcome bakery in Northcote didn't have many options.

Late last year, Mr Portnoy partnered with a mobile phone app that pledges to "rescue delicious food and fight food waste".

The app, Bring Me Home, is a Melbourne start-up that enables restaurants to upload surplus food for sale at a discounted rate for customers to order and collect within a certain window of time convenient for the business.

While a selection of breads, pastries and sandwiches from Mr Portnoy's bakery would normally cost $10 if purchased fresh, customers can snag them for $5 if purchased an hour before the bakery closes.

"When we first opened three years ago we had a really hard time finding second-life consumers for [our food]," he says.

"We've committed to serving the neighbourhood and trying to be inclusive. This feeds into the ethos of our business model."

If the bakery has lots of leftover food one day, Mr Portnoy can upload extra portions onto the app. If they have a busy day and there's not much left, he can reduce the portions available.

Food charity OzHarvest says a third of all food produced globally is wasted. Another food charity Foodbank says 3.2 million tonnes of food ends up in Australian landfill each year.

Juliette Anich is a lecturer at RMIT University and is working on a research project in collaboration with YWaste, a similar app to Bring Me Home.

Ms Anich says up to 40 per cent of food at some restaurants can go to waste, so any amount that's saved is positive.

"The proprietors we've spoken to are eager to see stuff not wasted and help their local communities," she says.

Bring Me Home says 6300 meals, equating to more than three tonnes of food, have been rescued by the app since August 2018.

The apps are among a growing number of tech-based startups fighting food waste. Another example, Olio, connects neighbours who can share leftover food instead of throwing it away. Meanwhile Yume is fighting the same fight against landfill, connecting buyers with wholesale suppliers.

Bring Me Home founder Jane Kou says it has been a challenge changing people's mindsets.

"Food rescue was a taboo [topic] because people think when it comes to food rescue you're dumpster diving. We had to educate people and change their perception to understand what food waste means.

"It's just unsold food at the end of the day, the quality is still there."

Composer Lyle Chan is a user of the app and applauds its potential to help the environment.

"We joke we're in one of the most recyclable industries - Beethoven wrote a piece of music and it's still used 200 years later," Mr Chan says.

"I think it's a way to take the pressure off food retailers - they never want to admit they're throwing away food. The last thing a chain wants to say is 'sold out'."