New App Allows Customers To Buy Food At A Discount Before It Goes Bad

Food waste is a huge problem in the world, but it finally appears that someone has come up with an ingenious solution. That someone is Josh Domingues, starter of Flashfood, which is slated to launch on August 1, 2016.

Food waste produces more greenhouse gases than every country save China and the United States, with tons and tons of food being dumped into landfills while countless numbers of people go hungry. Flashfood would help solve that problem, connecting those who are hungry with those throwing out food.

Domingues's goal is to avoid situations like that the one his sister experience when she was instructed to throw out $4,000 worth of clams before seeing hungry people on the street on her way home from work.

In the application, retailers will post images with food slated to be thrown away, along with a pickup location and an expiration date. The food will also be heavily discounted—the app requires a minimum of 60 percent, but Domingues wants that figure to eventually go as high as 75 percent.

It seems like a win-win: Businesses make money selling what would otherwise be trash, and customers get food at a discount while helping to eliminate food waste. With about a dozen countries wasting enough food to nearly feed the entire planet on their own, serious change is needed. And if Flashfood catches on, it might become a great tool in doing so.