The food apps helping you eat smarter and more sustainably

Happy Cow

Happy Cow is an award-winning app that started as a free-to-use website in 1999. One of the highest-rated vegan apps on the market, Happy Cow allows you to search for vegan or vegetarian restaurants near you, and is available almost everywhere in the world. Alongside original restaurant listings and reviews, the app now also offers vegan recipes, blogs and forum posts around health, travel and more, and is open for anyone to join and create new recipe posts and listings.

happycow.net

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Farmdrop

When buying from supermarkets, it's hard to know where in the world your food might have come from; Farmdrop is an app and website that solves this problem. In contrast to other grocery delivery apps, the company works directly with sustainable producers to ensure that the products you're delivered are fresh and organic. Your food is farmed to order, where possible from a farm within 150 miles, and comes to your house within 19 hours. Its eco credentials also extend to high animal welfare standards and the use of electric vans, while the local farmers are paid 75% of the retail price.

farmdrop.com

Karma

Every year a third of food produced is thrown away, but luckily there are companies out there helping to create sustainable food models. Instead of restaurants around the country binning excess food, Karma allows them to sell their meals to customers at a lower price, with discounts of 50–75%. Not only does this enable consumers to save money on delicious meals, but allows restaurants to increase their profits, reach new customers and help reduce their environmental impact. Founded in Stockholm in 2006, the app is now available in both Sweden and the UK, with 250,000 app users.

karma.life

MCS Good Fish Guide

Created by the Marine Conservation Society, the Good Fish Guide helps consumers to be more environmentally responsible when buying seafood. Available online and on the app, it allows you to search for a specific type of fish or seafood, and provides a sustainability rating and information on how it is farmed or fished. Not only can you get information on what fisheries you should be buying from and learn what seafood is in season, but you can also get recipes for all sorts of varieties and see ratings of seafood restaurants and cafes.

mcsuk.org

The Food Assembly

One of the main goals of The Food Assembly is to create a community between farmers and consumers, allowing people to be more aware of where their food comes from. The company sets up markets, searchable via the app, in which local farmers can sell their produce, and members of the community can access fresh food. All producers are able to set the price of their goods, and receive 80% of the retail price, as opposed to the 15–25% often offered by supermarkets. All produce comes from within 150 miles of the market site, and users are able to buy organic vegetables for around 33% cheaper than in a supermarket.

thefoodassembly.com