The number is climbing relentlessly upwards by the second: over 500 million tons of food have been lost or wasted in the world so far and there’s still more than 2 months left until Christmas, the biggest food holiday in most Western societies. Next to this statistics counter on The World Counts page, a single line of text served as the crude reminder of another uncomfortable truth: “The food wasted by the United States and Europe alone could feed the world 3 times over.” We’ve probably all heard of these stories growing up, of children living in poverty in a faraway land who never had enough to eat. But these turned out not to be mere fables concocted by our parents to coax us into touching the greens on our plate; the reality remains that in 2015, almost 800 million people still suffer from severe hunger and malnutrition, according to a recent article published by The Guardian. But at the same time, food waste is more than a political, social or environmental concern: beyond these numbers and statistics, minimising global food waste often comes down to our own personal choices – beginning with what we choose to buy from the shelves in our local supermarket.
Sharon Choi, a Master’s student starting her pedagogical studies at the University of Helsinki, still remembers how her mother and grandmother used to constantly nag her to finish every last spoonful of her meal as a child and she cites her upbringing as a major influence in how she regards food. “I love food, I’m a foodie and I cook a lot as well,” she explains, “but it was my experience working at wholesales, living abroad and getting to know people who worked in restaurants that really opened my eyes to how much edible food is wasted every day. I never thought I’d do something with food, I wanted to become a teacher and bring awareness to the many problems in the world. But now I’ve realised I could still accomplish all that with food.” Indeed, Sharon believes that education is the key to tackling some of the problems of food waste, which was why she immediately jumped onboard when her friend Shahram invited her to join Froodly.
Co-founded by Brennan Clark and Shahram Eivazi, Froodly was one of the winning teams of the Startup Weekend held in Helsinki this past summer and it has continued to earn praise and recognition for their innovative and environment-friendly approach to solving the food waste crisis on a retail level. The idea behind Froodly is simple: to bring together price- and environment-conscious people through the Froodly mobile app (currently available for iOS), which allows its users to upload and browse photos taken of discounted, expiring food items according to categories and supermarkets. To encourage their contributors to take photos, ‘green credits’ are awarded, which could be then exchanged for a tree planted in their name, a box of organic seeds, or even a discount on their next expired item purchase. So far the response has been very positive and the managers of Froodly’s partner stores have been more than happy to collaborate – it’s been estimated that up to 17% of edible food in Finnish retail stores (which could mean losing up to 10 000 euros for an average K-Citymarket, as calculated by Froodly) are wasted annually. This is a problem Brennan, Shahram, Sharon, and their 4th member, Serge Tsyba, are all too familiar with from their experiences working in food banks, doing extensive research on the subject and through talking to their friends in the food industry.
But besides minimising food waste, the team behind Froodly also hopes to change the negative connotations often associated with food waste itself: “There’s a stigma, a deep-seated mindset that buying discounted products is embarrassing. It’s our dream to change this attitude, so that customers will actually feel good about themselves for buying food that would have otherwise ended in the bin. You’d admire someone who picked up the trash on the street, why not for helping to reduce food waste,” Shahram asks. While students and others living on a tight budget would naturally benefit from Froodly’s services, Sharon explains that their goal is to expand their user base, develop the Froodly model on other platforms and possibly transfer it to other parts of Finland, or even the rest of the world. Despite being challenged by limited resources and the strict food industry regulations in Finland, Shahram and Sharon are confident that Froodly will be able to grow into a community of networks connecting people from all walks of life, who can share and broaden their theoretical as well as practical knowledge on food waste.
There is no doubt that more and more people are becoming environmentally conscious of the negative impacts of food waste and seeking alternative ways to combat it – take for example Denmark, who has been a forerunner in this perpetual battle and has managed to reduce its annual food waste by 25% in just 5 years, according to EU FUSIONS. Elsewhere, the United Nations opted to serve lunches made from vegetable scraps, ‘repurposed bread buns’ and ‘rejected apples and pears’ to highlight the staggering amount of wasted food, which it defined as “one of the greatest challenges to achieving food security”; and the French have already passed a new legislation this May forbidding supermarkets from destroying edible produce. Back home in Finland, new initiatives on reducing food waste have also been drafted and the University of Helsinki will be hosting a seminar on food security and social protection in honour of World Food Day on October 29th.
The number on the statistics counter has continued to increase and it’s clear that the solution to food waste won’t be easy. But if Froodly can introduce even one person to responsible consumption and smart shopping, then that’s already a step closer to the ideals behind the name: environmentally conscious and friendly food.
Check out Froodly’s website and help them out by taking their quick survey on discounted products here. All photos copyright of Froodly.com.