What are the best and most efficient ways to take care of our food?

This is the question being asked and answered by the global food tech market; a market expected to exceed $250 Billion by 2022. With kitchen waste now accounting for 1.3% of the total GDP in the USA, it’s no wonder startups are calling to retire the ole’ sticky note reminder on the tupperware method in favor of more advanced technologies.

This breaking wave of new technologies can be found right on your smartphone.

Apps are popping up rapidly, and in turn, that $250 Billion number will rise as that icky 1.3% gets lower and lower.

Here are a few apps creating noise in the food tech industry, trailblazing for kitchen efficiency, food preservation, and all-around world saving goodness.

1. Karma:

Instead of wasting food, 400,00 app users buy food for half price from businesses that upload unsold food to Karma.

1. Download the app and browse unsold food from restaurants, cafes and grocery stores.

2. Select & purchase food for ½ price — all within the app.

3. Pick it up to-go, and enjoy!

How they’re changing the world: With ⅓ of all food in the world being wasted, Karma has come up with a way to resell much of the food that would otherwise be thrown out - and at a fair price. Their win-win model is irresistible to both restaurants, who can make money off of food that would go to the trash - and customers, who get a great deal in an age when eating can be astronomical, but sometimes you’re just craving dumplings - y’know?

2. Blue Apron:

Chances are that you have heard of the darling of food tech, Blue Apron. Albeit much more than an app, Blue Apron has made a very strong name for themselves in the food industry by bringing fresh ingredients and fun-to-assemble recipes right to customers’ doorsteps.

1. Choose your recipes from their broad menu of 20-minute meals and recipes.

2. Blue Apron sends you a box containing the pre-portioned ingredients you need for the recipes you chose along with easy-to-use instructions.

3. All ingredients are freshness-guaranteed and ready to assemble

How they’re changing the world: With different plans to fit your household and lifestyle, you can pick from recipes that serve two, four, or more and decide how many recipes to get each week. This means no waste and no hungry kids asking what’s for dinner.

3. Food Cowboy

Like Kaarma, Food Cowboy’s goal is to decrease the surplus of excess food being thrown out. Food Cowboy turned waste into a supply chain by acting as the middle-man between food donors and charities by providing fast delivery of excess food.

1. Delivery drivers, caterers, and anyone working with large volumes of edible but rejected food create alerts in the app.

2. Food pantries, processors, and composters immediately receive these alerts and contact the source for delivery arrangements.

3. Food Cowboy charges a small commission for the service. For instance, a food bank can buy as much as they can store for 10 cents per pound.

How they’re changing the world: Food cowboy has found a way to reach many different players at the bottom of the food-waste funnel. By meeting the food waste issue at its source, they’ve found a way to corral food before it gets tossed.

4. Foodfully

Foodfully’s genius is in meeting customers where they are already: the grocery store. Foodfully is connected to more than 14 grocery stores in the U.S., and syncs with their loyalty cards.

1. Foodfully customers makes a purchase with a loyalty card, and the app records the transaction.

2. Users can easily manage their food inventory via the app.

3. Foodfully arranges items by perishable dates and sends the user notifications before they go bad. Additionally, the app suggests recipes based on what is available in the user’s fridge.

How they’re changing the world: By mating referral programs and food waste, Foodfully is keeping consumers updated on their own habits so that there are no misconceptions about what gets eaten and what gets thrown out. And while you await Silo’s tracking app (available in the coming year), to keep your kitchen fully connected, Foodfully is a great way to start tracking your inventory.

5. Feedie

With Feedie, you can turn a picture of your poke bowl or avocado toast into donations for charity. This app encourages users to share their food pictures for a good cause.

1. Users visit a participating restaurant in the U.S. or South Africa and take a photo of their meal.

2. They share the food picture on Facebook or Twitter.

3. Participating restaurants donate money to The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a daily meal to impoverished children.

How they’re changing the world: For every 500 restaurants that sign up, 5,000 children in South African schools receive enough meals for one year.

The food tech industry is a quickly burgeoning one and companies, startups, and individual entrepreneurs are facing the huge task of food waste elimination head on. Due to the staggering statistics of food waste in the U.S. - the claim of companies “changing the world” is no stretch of the imagination; it is a necessity. Silo is committed to fighting waste through our own unique technology, and supporting other food tech startups who are battling the same giant.