TAMPA, Fla. — The Too Good To Go app launched in the Tampa Bay area earlier this month with a goal of reducing surplus food waste by offering surprise takeout meals from some of your favorite restaurants at a third of the original price.

What You Need To Know

  • Too Good To Go app launched in Tampa Bay area earlier this month

  • The app offers takeout meals at a third of the original price

  • Customers don't know which food items are in the surprise bag

  • The discounted takeout meals are offered around closing time

“It allows us the opportunity to be sustainable,” said Roberto Torres, Blind Tiger Café owner. “We would normally waste log or that food would end up in a landfill. Now somebody else can reclaim it.”

Torres signed up all 7 of his Blind Tiger Café locations on the app.

The owner said he puts $15 worth of surplus food in the bag which sells for $5. The heavily discounted food, which was destined for the dumpster, is offered on the app around closing time and the items inside the bag are a surprise.

“You don’t know what you’re going to get at the end of the day, and typically what people are expecting are their favorite pastry or something like that but there’s an element of surprise,” said Torres. “That’s why they call it a ‘surprise bag’ where you know you’re going to get a certain dollar value but you don’t know what’s in the bag.” 

The Too Good To Go app first launched in Europe in 2016. According to the company’s website, 2.8 billion tons of food are wasted every year because it isn’t sold in time. The app lets you rescue unsold food from an untimely fate and helps save the planet.

“Everybody is going to win,” said Torres. “The idea is that every restaurant in the Bay area will do it.”

Torres said because of his roots, it pains him to throw away perfectly good food.

“I’m originally an immigrant from Panama,” he said. “I came from a third world country. So, throwing food (away) is a big no-no.”