Sale of food waste containers sets a record at home

No one dies from eating a can of bulleted tomatoes, people can easily eat Christmas leftovers in January, and the dried thyme should only have a little water, then it's good again. And now Danes have also discovered this.

Discount food containers with everything from supermarkets' reduced sections have never sold so well as now, and although the concept is largely born from a climate and environmental day order, it is also the high food prices that fill customers today, according to the industry.

Since the start 10 years ago, nearly 3 million Danes have registered as users of Too Good To Go, informs director Mette Lykke. (© DR)

- The demand for discount food containers has increased significantly since the inflation crisis. The same is true for the demand for surplus food in Stop Spild Lokalts madoasers. We can clearly see that the demand for reduced surplus food is increasing in tandem with the rising food prices, says Jens Juul Nielsen, who is the information director in Coop Denmark.

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> For many it is a cherished help to get food on the table and at the same time

> do something good for the environment.

> Mette Lykke, director in Too Good to Go

Also in Salling Group, the special sales of Too Good To Go's discount food containers have gained ground and have grown by 17 percent from 2024 to 2025. The app-based discount food service has in total had a busy time with mediating 'lucky containers' from the country's supermarkets, bakeries and restaurants. Good 827,000 Danish users used the app in the last quarter - corresponding to a place between every fifth and every sixth Dane.

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New faces

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It is both the cheap and the free that are popular. The latter often ends up in Stop Spild Lokalts madoasers, which, like Too Good To Go, have been around for ten years. Here, they certainly do not see that the demand has decreased, tells founder Rasmus Erichsen - on the contrary, the group of customers has become broader.

- It is the ordinary Danish person who may have a job and a relatively average income, who can easily be pressed, and who is forced to look at where savings can be made. So I am sure that the situation with rising food prices has made more people have to get food from places like us.

In the food bank in Næstved, Iben Godtfredsen is now accustomed - through several years she has come into the food bank, and she can also clearly see that new ones have come.

Too Good To Go is the Danish app that mediates the sale of discount food containers - as a starting point for a third of the sales price. (Photo: © Hanne Høier, DR)

- I can feel that we have become many more from all layers - and we are many who are in the queue. Today it is almost a competition to get a number, she says.

One of the new faces is Yasmin Al-Khafaji, who is a student and has a family of four. She points to the rising food prices as the reason for why she for the first time on Monday chose to try her luck at Stop Spild Lokalt.

- We usually shop once a week, but it's about 2,000 kroner just for two adults and two children. So it's a lot of money in a month. Here you get both vegetables and cold food, bread, many things. It can benefit children, adults, the elderly, who are under pressure on their economy, so it is only positive, she says.

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Naturally in a crisis time

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In a time where the price of butter is debated just as fiercely in Thyborøn and Gentofte, it may not be so surprising that discount food containers are increasingly gaining ground. From Too Good To Go's side, there has always been talk of a win-win solution, where the fight against food waste goes hand in hand with making a good deal. But one can clearly see that it is a crisis time, says director Mette Lykke.

- Even though inflation is falling, the (food prices, red.) are still high, and that is a motivation for many of our users. It's about leading a sensible household and being cost-conscious. For many it is a cherished help to get food on the table and at the same time do something good for the environment.

Føtex chain has seen nearly 10 percent new customers, who come specifically because the chain sells Too Good To Go containers, says operations manager Simon Kudsk. (Photo: © Simon Boye, DR)

In Salling Group, operations manager for Føtex, Simon Kudsk, in addition to a significantly higher sales of discount food containers can also see a general change in Danes' shopping habits.

- There is no doubt that inflation and higher prices have pushed a little on the entire market. Customers shop intelligently, so it can be that the cheaper cut of meat has become more expensive, but customers simply shop outside these categories, and Too Good To Go has become more attractive as a result. But it is also about an increased awareness of doing something good for the environment, he says.

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