Whole Foods Launches Initiative Offering ’Surprise Bags’ of Unsold Food

Whole Foods Market has announced a new initiative aimed at reducing food waste.

The grocery chain is partnering with Too Good To Go , an app that connects consumers with discounted surplus food from restaurants and stores. This collaboration will roll out "surprise bags" filled with unsold food at more than 450 Whole Foods locations nationwide.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30% to 40% of the food supply in the country goes to waste each year. Feeding America underscores the scale of the issue, reporting that over 92 billion pounds of food, equivalent to 145 billion meals, are discarded annually. Whole Foods' new program aims to combat this problem by repurposing good food that would otherwise go to waste.

Whole Foods is offering two types of surprise bags: The prepared food bag, priced at $9.99, has a retail value of $30 and may include items like soups, ready-to-eat meals and protein salads.

The bakery bag, costing $6.99, is valued at $21 and can contain a variety of baked goods such as breads, muffins and scones.

These surprise bags are limited in number, with each store offering only four prepared foods bags and two bakery bags daily.

Too Good To Go has already rolled out in 27 cities, including Washington D.C., Chicago, Miami, Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit and several Texas cities like San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Austin. The partnership with Whole Foods now extends the app's reach to 24 new states, further broadening its impact.

"We are thrilled to be part of the Too Good To Go community," Caitlin Leibert, Vice President of Sustainability, Whole Foods Market said in announcing the initiative . "As part of our purpose to nourish people and the planet, we continue to invest in new and innovative ways to keep unsold food out of our landfills and empower our customers to make environmentally conscious choices. We're proud of the work we've done — just last year we donated nearly 34 million pounds of food to food programs across the country — but are so excited to expand that work with the help of Too Good To Go."