The amount of Food wasted worldwide is a vast and increasing problem. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that food waste in the country is between 30-40% of the food supply, with around 150,000 tons of food thrown away daily.

In a world where one in seven people lack sufficient food or water, it's vital to address this issue. Fortunately, technology can help individuals find innovative ways to preserve food and reduce wastage.

So, here are some of the best iPhone apps to help you do your part to waste less food while saving yourself money in the process.

1. Too Good to Go

Too Good to Go is a free app providing a brilliant service. Download it and search the map to find a restaurant, café, or shop near you that has unsold food. Then, order and collect a Surprise Bag directly from the location. The prices are incredibly reasonable, starting from just $2, and the value of the contents is higher than the price you pay.

The result: you get bargain food, and businesses have less waste. Everyone wins!

The app is easy to use and allows you to save your favorite places, get notifications when new Surprise Bags are available, and place orders. It even records how much money and CO2 you've saved! Too Good to Go currently operates in 18 countries.

Download: Too Good To Go (Free)

2. OLIO

OLIO is another ingenious app that will help you to share more and waste less. Sign up for free to access a database of food that people near you are giving away, or ask to borrow an item you need.

OLIO's not limited to food—you can give away and get all kinds of household items, from furniture to clothing. As you share, you earn karma points and unlock badges.

Subscribe to become an OLIO supporter and get a unique supporter profile along with the ability to view listings on a map view within the app. The main benefit, though, is to invest in supporting OLIO's mission.

It's a friendly community with a supportive forum, and it's available worldwide so everyone can join. Like OLIO, you can easily find many more sites and apps to help you reduce waste.

Download: OLIO (Free, subscription available)

3. Kitche

Kitche is a free app designed to ensure you don't waste any food in your home. Use it to log all the food in your kitchen—a brilliant feature that allows you to scan your store receipts, so the process takes seconds.

The app keeps an inventory of all the food you have in stock and categorizes everything. It can then suggest what you might need to buy next time you shop.

There's even a recipe section that you can filter to show recipes with the ingredients you have. The result: no more wasted food. So, tack the impact of your actions within Kitche, and use the tips sections to get some great ideas about food storage.

Download: Kitche (Free)

4. Horizon

Product packaging can be confusing, and sometimes it's not always clear what the recycling rules are in your area. That's where Horizon comes in handy.

This free recycling app is full of great advice to ensure you waste less and recycle more. Enter your location details, scan a product, and learn how to recycle it in your locality. It's especially great at identifying the many types of plastic food packaging.

Horizon is packed with great information about responsible use of resources and recycling and is supported by organizations like Green Tech Alliance. You can also listen to some great podcasts about how to practice sustainability.

Download: Horizon (Free)

5. Karma

"Rescue food effortlessly" is the boast of this free app. Karma provides a way for restaurants and shops to sell surplus food at a discounted price so it doesn't go to waste.

There's usually a regular time in the afternoon when the food listings are uploaded, so check what times your local places update their stock, and then purchase it within the app and go along with your receipt to collect your food.

This brilliant app works similarly to Too Good To Go but allows you to choose exactly which food you buy, so there are no surprises.

Download: Karma (Free)

6. Evocco

Evocco helps you to be more aware of the carbon footprint of your shopping. This food app allows you to photograph your receipts whenever you shop for food and get a sustainability score. The app will suggest which products you should buy more of and which to consume less of to improve your score.

Even better, you can make your food shopping carbon neutral by using the carbon offset feature within the app. This enables the people behind Evocco to plant native woodland in Ireland, capturing carbon and restoring natural habitats.

Evocco will definitely make you more aware of the impact of your consumer choices. And if you're interested in this topic, you can also learn about going zero-waste on YouTube.

Download: Evocco (Free)

7. NoWaste

NoWaste is a food inventory tool for use in your home. It helps you track what's in your fridge, freezer, or pantry and keep tabs on expiration dates. That way, you'll avoid unnecessary purchases at the store, plan your meals according to which products need to be used soon, and generally save lots of food and money.

Scan your products' barcodes or use the database to add items to your inventory, then check them off as consumed or expired and add them to your shopping list. You can even earn reward coins for your actions and then trade them for discounts on products in NoWaste's online market.

NoWaste is in use in at least 180 countries at the time of writing and is available in seven languages. If you find this app handy, consider upgrading to NoWaste Pro for features such as a pro scanner and unlimited inventories.

Download: NoWaste (Free, subscription available)

Develop Sustainable Food Habits for Life

With roughly eight billion people on the planet, our world's precious resources are in demand as never before. We are all consumers, and everyone makes daily choices about what we eat and how we shop.

Thankfully, these apps for your iPhone can help you do your part to use food resources wisely and avoid unnecessary waste.