11th Hour app an innovative solution to food wastage

I commend Mr Tan Jun Yuan for his 11th Hour app, which could help alleviate food wastage in the food and beverage industry here (“An 11th Hour answer to cutting down on food waste”: Nov 8).

Singapore generated 785,550 tonnes of food waste last year. Food waste has increased by about 48 per cent over the past decade and is expected to continue rising because of our population growth and greater affluence.

Hence I am glad that Mr Tan has created an innovative way to tackle this problem. I feel that the app will be effective, especially in the Singaporean context.

Everyone is becoming more tech-savvy, and most people have a mobile phone nowadays.

So an app that tells which restaurants are having last-minute discounts would make them accessible to many Singaporeans.

Not only would Singaporeans be receptive, as the app is easy to use, but most of us love discounts — an incentive to use the app and reduce food wastage.

Restaurants would be motivated to take part, as they would be able to “recoup some costs by selling at reduced prices”.

An approach that targets both food consumers and producers could be effective in targeting the problem.

The app is also promising because it could be improved to include larger chains — which would attract more users — as well as hawkers and supermarkets in future versions.

This would provide a more holistic effort in reaching out to different F&B businesses.

It would expand the target audience to not only the younger crowds who visit restaurants but also to those such as housewives, who buy groceries, or those who frequent hawker centres for more affordable local food.