The Waikato region has received a sustainability boost to its hospitality sector with Foodprint, a new app that connects customers to discounted surplus food from local eateries.  

Almost 50,000 tonnes of food is wasted by the hospitality and retail sectors in New Zealand each year, over 60 percent of which is still edible. When food is thrown out it decomposes in landfills and emits the greenhouse gas methane, making food waste a huge contributor to climate change. 

The Foodprint app connects with local hospitality to reduce their food waste by giving customers the opportunity to purchase surplus and imperfect food at a discounted rate.  

Officially launched in beginning of May in Hamilton, Raglan, Cambridge and Te Awamutu, the successful launch into Waikato has already expanded from 30 local eateries to 40 over the past month.  

“The reception from the Waikato eateries has been great, there was a lot of excitement from the smaller towns,” says Foodprint CEO Michal Garvey.  

"We have smashed our customer goal for the region already with 10% customer growth in the last month taking us to over 50,000 customers.” 

The region joins the community of 400 eateries in Auckland and Wellington reducing their ‘foodprint’ with the app.  

Camille from Wyld Eatery in Raglan says they have had a positive experience using the app so far and that preventing food waste is something that makes as much sense for them as using reusable cups or buying local. 

“We’re very lucky and happy to be partners on this app, hopefully the Foodprint community grows bigger, here in Rags and around New Zealand. Every corner of Aotearoa deserves to save the planet with half priced cheese scones.”  

Wyld is already seeing change in their business since becoming a Foodprint app partner.  

“We’ve met a lot of new customers, it has brought fresh faces to us and they keep coming back now. Overall, it’s taken pressure off our shoulders: no waste, no stress about producing too much or not enough...everything always sells.” 

Foodprint initially launched in Auckland in 2019 and has already saved over 50 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent gas through food rescue. The Foodprint app tracks how much carbon dioxide customers save during their purchase and allows businesses to see how much food they have recovered. 

The Foodprint app is free for eateries to sign up to and free for customers to download.

Download the Foodprint app here.