Flashfood, an app that connects grocers to customers to help them find and purchase grocery items that are nearing their best-before dates at a discounted rate, released its second annual "Impact Report: The Future of Food is Waste" at the ReFED 2024 Food Waste Solutions Summit.
The report features interviews with a variety of expert industry voices, a case study of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program'sElectronic Benefits Transfer usage on Flashfood, and a deep dive on how food waste relates to nutrition and produce consumption in the U.S., according to a news release.
Flashfood said the report findings show 44 million people experience food insecurity in the U.S., but 145 billion meals are thrown away annually. The company said only 48 billion meals would feed 44 million people with three meals a day for an entire year. That means three times the food needed is wasted.
“There’s a tendency for technology companies in an emerging industry to be framed as competitors, rather than collaborators,” Flashfood President and CEO Nicholas Bertram said. “The aim of Flashfood’s annual impact report is not just to communicate our progress, but to offer research and insights the industry can benefit from, and to highlight other organizations we support. Through partnership, I genuinely believe that the best days of humanity are ahead of us, not behind us, and I hope the industry can join me in this optimism.”
"A new survey of U.S. consumers conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Flashfood showed about half of U.S. consumers (52%) pay more attention to coupons or sales or buying store-brand products over the name brand (48%) because of rising grocery prices, the release said.
Flashfood said eating healthily costs an additional $1.50 a day in the U.S., and the price of produce dramatically outpaced the cost increase of other foods, but fewer than 1 in 10 people in the U.S. eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables. The company said, at the same time, more than 30 million tons of produce per year in the U.S. is thrown out.
Flashfood said it is working to solve the problem with its mixed produce box. In 2023 alone, Flashfood saved shoppers more than $13 million dollars on fresh produce, the release said.
"The food waste crisis is solvable," said Esther Cohn, director of communications for Flashfood. "By connecting shoppers with affordable, fresh food, retailers reduce the amount of food they send to landfill and make a real difference in their communities. People want more affordable groceries, and grocery stores don't want to throw food away. Flashfood is a marketplace that makes this connection easy for retailers and affordable for shoppers."
Related link: View Flashfood's 2023 Impact Report
