Food Hero, a Canadian company focused on sustainable food commerce, today released its 2025 Impact Report, detailing how more than 7 million pounds / 2.8 million kg of food was diverted from the landfill. Food waste ‘remains a striking paradox’…
Food Hero: “Did you know that if food waste were a country, it would
be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases?”
Reducing methane and CO2
The efforts of Food Hero, to rescue wholesome, perfectly edible food from the waste stream, is having a huge effect on greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the company’s 2025 annual report, it diverted enough waste from the landfill to reduce Canada’s CO2 emissions by more than 5 million lb / 2.28 million kg. Add to that a comparable amount of methane which is produced by decay of waste in landfills.
A sad picture…
“Nearly half of all food produced in Canada is never eaten,” Food Hero’s report states. “An estimated 41 percent of that waste is avoidable, representing $58 billion in lost value each year. That’s not just wasted money; it’s throw-out annually generates roughly 25.7 million metric tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. In everyday terms, that’s about 285 million round-the-world [airline] flights.”
The landfill is not your friend
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that food in landfills ‘just breaks down’. In reality, landfills are low-oxygen environments. Food waste decomposes there into methane, a greenhouse gas more than 25 times as potent as CO₂. Preventing waste altogether avoids most of these emissions while saving the resources behind every bite.”
Also an economic issue
“Meanwhile, rising costs are making it harder for Canadians to feed their families without sacrificing nutrition. About one in seven households is food insecure, yet the cost of avoidable food waste is more than $1,300 a year for the average family. That’s like throwing a full bag of groceries in the trash every single week.”
How Food Hero works…
The company receives food from retailers which would otherwise go in the dumpster. But, while it may be beyond its best-before date or blemished, this food is perfectly wholesome, nutritious and edible.
Food Hero works through a smartphone app that connects consumers to local supermarkets. The retailers post foods they have on their shelves that are ‘aging’. Shoppers can buy them at deep dis-count prices before the grocers’ protocols say they have to be thrown away.
My take
The food hero app gives you a real, effective weapon against high food prices. It’s like being there, at the supermarket, the moment a ‘clearance’ markdown is slapped on a meat or produce product.
More than 1,000 supermarkets across 9 national and regional chains are already members of the Food Hero ‘network’. And more are joining the fight against food waste every day.
You can save 30 to 50 percent on ‘perishables’ by using the FREE Food Hero app. And you can earn a referral fee every time one of friends or family members makes their first Food Hero-enabled purchase.
Why would anyone NOT do it?
~ Maggie J.