Examining the Problem
In addition to global food insecurity, food waste directly contributes to massive land use and water waste, as well as 14.1% of all human methane emissions from decomposing food in landfills. All in all, food waste accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
While waste happens at at all stages of the production and supply chain, where Mealime has an impact is on food waste in the home. Studies (CEC 2017, Bosch 2019), have shown that North Americans throw away between 103 and 374 pounds of spoiled food per year.
The top three reasons for throwing away food in the Bosch study were:
- It will go bad before i can use it: 52%
- I frequently buy more than I need: 47%
- Not enough to make another meal: 36%
Mealime addresses all three of these scenarios directly: by helping our users align their grocery purchases with planned meals, by coordinating our recipe quantities with how items are sized in the grocery store, and by combining recipes effectively within your weekly meal plans to help users use up everything they purchase.
The result?
Even semi-frequent use of Mealime has been shown to avoid significant food waste: Creating one meal plan every 2 weeks equates to approximately 60lbs of avoided food waste per year. This amounts to an annual savings of $374 per person.
