TooGoodToGo in Europa 2022 — my experience from 2 months, 6 countries

Photo by simon peel on Unsplash

During my journey across Europe in July and August 2022, I had the chance to use Too Good To Go 15 times in 6 different countries.

Now I want to share my experience and my thoughts with you.

What is TooGoodToGo

The company was founded in 2015 in Kopenhagen, Denmark.

The mission is to reduce the waste of food products. Therefore they created a smartphone app for Android and iOS which provides a marketplace for sharing these products.

The principle is pretty easy. Restaurants, hotels, bakeries, and supermarkets can offer food bags for a small price instead of throwing them into the trashcan.

Customers can search in their local area for offers. The price of a bag varies between 2 and 15 euros. The average I had was 5 euros. You pay with a credit card or apple pay in the app. You get a code that must be shown when you pick up your bag. Most of the time the bag is already waiting for you.

You now only the price and the timespan when you have to pick up your bag. You don´t know exactly what is inside.

Example of an offer (sorry that the picture is in german language):

What`s inside your bag

I had 15 bags and of course, I can not say if this is valid over the next years. Also if this is true for every country. So here it comes with photos of my bags.

Asia restaurant (Austria):

Tested 3 times. Every time it was excellent. The first one was a sushi restaurant which gave me the rest of the sushi after lunch.

The second and third times I came after the evening buffet officially ended. You get an empty box and can fill it with whatever is left.

Very tasty, and definitely worth the money.

Hotel breakfast (France/Germany/Austria):

There we had some differences.

In a Low-Budget hotel, we had two big brown paper bags full of croissants, cakes, and buns for only 2,50€. 2 days breakfast for two people and we produces some breadcrumbs for cooking.

Unfortunately, we had to throw it away a bit because we were traveling and couldn’t store it. In fact, it was a package that a whole family could have raved about.

In upper-class hotels, we had one bag for one person with a little bit better quality. Except for buns and croissants, we had some yogurt and fruits.

Restaurants and Fast Food (Portugal/Austria):

We tested fried chicken and french fries. Pretty solid. It was okay.

A Catering Service gave us a bag with two meals. BBQ Pork and chicken fricassee. We didn´t know it before and we had to warm it up.

Bakeries (France/Germany):

We had some extraordinary good cakes and cakes.

Next time the seller put the bag together in front of our eyes. Everything that was left on the display and on the shelf was just before closing time. A colorful mix of pastries, cakes, and rolls.

In these cases, 1 package for 2 people was always enough for us. Often something was left over for lunch/afternoon as a snack.

Bars and small shops (France/Italy):

There are often sandwiches and filled rolls here. These were okay. Not freshly prepared, of course, but quite good as a snack.

I could not rate supermarkets that hand in food packages. I was traveling and had no refrigeration or storage facilities. But I will do this again.

Overall experience

I get my overall experience from the ratings I gave to the individual stations via the app.

The decisive factor for me was the price/performance ratio and the, admittedly subjective, taste.

Can I recommend it?

Definitely yes!

On the one hand, it is actually cheaper than a purchase including the energy consumption of the preparation. Of course, you have to consider what you buy and what quality is worth to you. You should therefore pay attention to the offers to see if they suit you.
For example, I couldn’t always cook dinner for 4 to 5 euros per person. But depending on what’s cooking.

Breakfast for 3 euros that fills 2 people and leaves something for the afternoon coffee is pretty good.

It is also a way to reduce food waste.

Due to the low price, it is not entirely “given away” to the provider and due to the short period of time for collection, the concern that customers will wait for it and not eat in the restaurant is unfounded.

According to the app, I saved 45kg of CO2 with my purchases.

A win/win/win situation for providers, consumers, and the environment.

For users, I would only give the following 3 pieces of advice.

• In my opinion, bakeries, restaurants with buffets, and hotel breakfasts are particularly worthwhile. The food is good and plentiful. Leftovers from breakfast can always be used somehow. Higher-priced hotels offer less quantity but more quality. If you need bread rolls, you should rather choose simple hotels or bakeries.
• Always consider the footpath or driveway. Do you still have to transport the food home or do you eat it right away? Bring your cutlery if you want to eat it right away. Also, consider the time when the food could get cold and what your journey costs you and the environment.
• When traveling it is totally worth it. We’ve been to campsites and stocked up on the way. Of course, there are areas where there is nothing, and countries like Greece are not (yet) included, but it’s worth checking out.

Try it out and enjoy it!