Larne community invited to check out food waste app Olio

Olio was created with the aim of reducing food waste by connecting those with surplus food to consumers.

The creators of the mobile app recently partnered with Tesco Express stores across Northern Ireland, including Larne s Main Street branch.

Local volunteers trained as Food Waste Heroes help to collect and distribute surplus food that is nearing or just past its 'best before' date, or close to its 'use by' date.

Larne Food Waste Hero, Lynsey Poole said: "Olio is a free app; ultimately their main aim is to unlock the value of food that is wasted at home or within the community. It’s essentially the same concept as a community fridge in an app.

"The app can also be used for furniture and home-made products along with food. Even if you’re a keen gardener with a glut of vegetables or someone going on holiday who would have extra food waste, you can use the app to give it safely to someone who will use it."

Olio has been up and running in the local area with Tesco Express since March, with other food businesses invited to sign up.

However, there are still only a small number of users of the app in the Larne area. "It would be great to see further uptake as so much food is wasted daily (one third of all food ends up in the bin) and there are many who would either want or need it," Lynsey added.

"Sometimes it can be hard to shift items, particularly bread or, for example, this evening another volunteer had 17 packets of radishes and it would be nice to get the word out to more people to prevent any left over food."

For more information on Olio, visit the website https://olioex.com/Read more: Location sought for Larne community fridge