How Aussies are bagging incredible meals for a third of their regular price

As the cost of living continues to bite, Aussies are trying to figure out how to secure a decent meal without breaking the bank. And, as some turn to dumpster diving, a new alternative is now available that taps into the large volume of wasted food without so much as opening a bin.

Liana Vagnoni, 22, managed to score herself a large ciabatta sandwich and an almond croissant for $8 this week at a local cafe near her home in Bundoora, Melbourne — collecting it directly from the venue despite only paying a third of its original price of $24.

It is thanks to the new social impact app Too Good To Go that allows hospitality venues to sell food that would otherwise be thrown out.

"From a consumer perspective, I will eat anything for a cheaper price," student Vagnoni told Yahoo News. "[It] feels like you are buying food out, minus the cost."

Started in Denmark in 2015, the free app launched in Melbourne, its first Australian location, last Thursday following its success in other countries, including the UK and US. The company plans to also make the app available in Sydney before the end of the year.

"For around a year now I had been seeing videos of it operating in America... I saw last week that it had been brought to Melbourne. In university I'm studying impacts of food waste and the amount there is, [so] I was so excited to see that there was now an app to deal with this," she said.

Vagnoni has only used the app once but confirmed she intends to use it frequently, saying she's eager to recruit some of her favourite venues so she can reap the benefits.

Aussies score cheap food during food waste crisis

Every year roughly 7.6 million tonnes worth of food is wasted in Australia, meaning despite the food going through a process of being grown or imported, handled, transported, prepared, cooked and even paid for, it lands in the bin.

In trying economic times, with over 20 per cent of Aussies admitting food is a major source of money concern, tapping into this large volume of food waste is in the best interest of the country and Too Good To Go is attempting to tackle this, with hospitality venues also benefitting from the initiative.

"It's a $36.6 billion food waste problem in Australia, and that's just mind-blowing... we're super motivated to contribute to that kind of massive problem," Country Director of Too Good To Go, Joost Rietveld, told Yahoo News.

How does the Too Good To Go app work?

Hospitality venues flag when they have food available in the app and Aussies can select and pay for a "surprise bag" from whichever retailer they select, collecting it from the premises at a time set out by the venue.

There is no guarantee what the food will be, as knowing what will be leftover by the end of the day is difficult to predict, however, those using this food source are guaranteed to get value for money.

"They have a guarantee to the value they get... they will get three times the value that they pay for," Rietveld explained. "You can also see that in the app, it will show you not only what you're paying, but also the original value that you would get. So that's something you can rely on."

Customers cop 'trade-off' for paying one-third of food value

This "trade-off" allows Aussies to get food at a cheaper price but without knowing exactly what they're buying, accommodating for allergens and food intolerances can be tricky. However, in most cases, Rietveld said vendors do their best to find suitable food for the customer, or they are able to get their money back.

"This is the trade-off, of getting that value but then accepting you don't know what you'll get," he said.

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