Too Good to Go, a surplus food marketplace app founded in Denmark, is now collaborating with Whole Foods Market, in efforts to tackle food waste across Canada.
As 2025 begins, Too Good to Go continues to expand across Canada, adding all Whole Food Market locations to the app. This includes Ottawa’s Whole Food Market location in Landsdowne Park on Bank Street.
“Teaming up with Whole Foods Market to fight food waste in Canada is a milestone moment for us,” said Andrea Li, Country Director of Too Good To Go Canada, adding “Together, we’re giving people an easy way to access high-quality fresh food, at a reduced cost.”
Consumers with the Too Good to Go app can save food while saving money — where businesses add same-day food items that didn’t sell in store, listed for a reduced price on the app.
This works to prevent food waste, while improving food affordability, said the company.
“When food gets thrown away, it’s put into a landfill and then typically takes around 25 years to decompose, contributing to rising temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Sarah Soteroff, spokesperson for Too Good To Go.
“Our ultimate goal is to be as sustainable as possible and to provide businesses with an avenue to make sure that food ends up with people and in their bellies, and not in the garbage,” she noted.
Whole Foods Market is now offering surprise bags of surplus food, where consumers can purchase more affordable food and prevent food waste.
Consumers across Ottawa, GTA, Metro Vancouver, and Victoria can reserve two types of Whole Foods Market surprise bags — including prepared food surprise bags containing soups and ready-to-eat meals as well as bakery surprise bags containing surplus breads, muffins, cookies and more.
Prepared food surprise bags are available on the app for $9.99 — valued at $30 — and bakery surprise bags are priced at $6.99, with $21 worth of baked goods.
“While food waste reduction is integral to our purpose to nourish people and the planet, we’ve pledged to cut our food waste in half by 2030 by minimizing food waste in our stores and increasing access to food in our local communities,” said Caitlin Leibert, vice president of Sustainability at Whole Foods Market.
Since Too Good To Go launched in Ottawa in June 2022, nearly 300,000 meals have been saved from 470 local businesses, wrote the company in an email to CityNews.
This includes local businesses such as Pure Kitchen, Farinella, and The Piggy Market, as well as Canada-wide businesses — including Maverick’s, Metro and Tim Hortons.
“What we like to do is make sure that it’s not just the chains and there’s a good mix of local businesses (included in the app),” said Soteroff.
“Number one, we want to support local businesses and it’s helpful for them to have a way to recoup lost revenue by not having to throw food away,” she added
According to Too Good To Go‘s latest survey with Léger, 1 in 3 Ottawans intend to buy imperfect produce or surplus food from restaurant and stores in 2025.
Since the app was introduced in Ottawa, analysis has revealed that while local consumers are loyal to restaurants, there is also interest in being more sustainable, explained Soteroff.
According to the company, they have also learned that Ottawa consumers are adventurous eaters — interested in trying out new foods and following new trends, while still consuming those staple food items.
“That’s where we come in — you can get your staples by shopping with us, but at a lower cost and consumers are freed up to buy those trendy items or try out a new restaurant,” she added.
Too Good to Go across Canada
The 2025 Canada’s Food Price Report projects that an average Canadian family will spend an additional $801.56 on groceries this year and more consumers are searching for ways to save, wrote Too Good to Go in a news release.
“With all Whole Foods Market locations now available on the app, Canadians will have more chances to save high quality, high value food from waste while further lowering their household food costs,” wrote the company.
Those interested in preventing food waste while saving money can download the Too Good To Go app on both iOS and Android platforms.
“In extending the collaboration across North America both companies are reinforcing their shared commitment to reduce food waste, provide shoppers with high quality surplus food and further their dedication to sustainability,” wrote Too Good to Go.