Whole Foods around the country are offering mystery food bags to eliminate food waste. TikTok users are capturing their Too Good to Go bag unveilings online.
In an effort to eliminate food waste, Whole Foods has partnered with an app to give customers a steal of a deal on prepared food — and social media users have some thoughts about it.
The “Too Good to Go” app is a surplus food marketplace that partners with local grocery stores to sell unused food that could go bad soon.
The trend has hit TikTok — specifically the bags offered at Whole Foods — for the variety of findings in the “mystery” purchase.
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Emily Gierke, 36, of Dallas, Texas, told Fox News Digital that she’s used the Too Good to Go app a few times after hearing about it on TikTok.
Gierke said she first started buying the mystery food bags in June 2023 but has only purchased them five times due to the “treasure hunt” the purchase winds up being.
She said in a TikTok video that the prepared food bag she purchased was $9.99 and was supposed to include $30 worth of food.
“I got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, three containers of pizza cheese and five containers of pasta salad,” she told Fox News Digital via email.
While disappointed in her purchase, Gierke said she’s been happy with her purchases in the past — and with no food restrictions or allergies, she finds this idea to be of good value.
“I get to try new places or new items from a place I have been to before at a lower cost,” she said.
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Gierke joked that although pasta salad isn’t her favorite meal, the process has helped her be creative in her food choices.
“Overall, the bags are a hit [but] this one was a miss,” she said.
Social media users commented on the video, however — and some had different experiences.
One TikTok user said of Gierke’s video, “The one and only time I did this, I got a singular ham. It was so upsetting.”
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Another user said, “I was so excited for my baked goods bag — got two of them. Bagels had mold and the other pastries were way past their time. Never again.”
Lili Baiden, 21, of Scottsdale, Arizona, told Fox News Digital that she’s a full-time student at Arizona State University and struggles with the mystery bag because she’s a vegetarian.
“Something that is interesting about the bag is you can’t customize it,” she said via email.
“For example, I am vegetarian — so I didn’t eat any of the meat items that came in my surprise bag.”
Baiden, who purchased a prepared food bag for $9.99 and a bakery bag for $6.99, said she was able to give some of the food to others and overall still loves the concept.
She also noted that all the food in her Too Good to Go bag didn’t expire for another week past pick up.
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“It’s such a great thing to do if you want a late-night snack or need some dinner and don’t want to spend too much money,” she said via email.
The Too Good to Go-Whole Foods partnership launched nationwide last month, with more than 450 Whole Foods locations providing surplus food for the “surprise bags.”
Whole Foods has more than 500 grocery stores across the U.S. and nearly 20 in Canada and the United Kingdom.
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Caitlin Leibert, vice president of sustainability for Whole Foods, told Fox News Digital that nearly 100% of the Too Good to Go bags sell out.
“We know the most effective way to reduce food waste is preventing it from occurring at the start,” she said.
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She added, “By teaming up with Too Good to Go, we’ve found an innovative way to not only help decrease our food waste and reduce our environmental footprint, but offer customers quality food at a great value.”
Fox News Digital’s Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.
