Food waste is a hot potato for the restaurant industry, challenging campaigners to think of ever more innovative ways to tackle it.

Chef Mary-Ellen McTague and the Real Junk Food Project have just smashed their £20,000 crowdfunding target to open a restaurant using only ingredients that would otherwise end up in the bin.

And now a new app has launched in Manchester, allowing customers to order leftovers from the city’s restaurants , coffee shops and bars with up to 90% off the normal price.

Foundation Coffee House, Soup Kitchen, Ezra and Gil, Nine, Efes Taverna, Red Hot World Buffet, China Buffet and Chopstix are among the venues already signed up to the Too Good To Go scheme.

Whatever food they have left before they close, they can portion up and list on the app for customers to order and collect for as little as £2.

Kevin McCauley, manager of Foundation Coffee House on Lever Street, said: “We’re very pleased to be signed up to Too Good To Go and especially so that we were one of the first in Manchester to join their fight against food waste.

“We’re very much looking forward to seeing less of our great products head for the bin and instead to customers, which is where they belong. Too Good To Go provides an easily usable interface through which restaurants and consumers can both benefit and we hope to see other Manchester eateries join with us in tackling waste.”

(Image: Sean Hansford)

Modelled on a Danish concept and launched in Leeds last year, the social enterprise has since rolled out to London, Brighton and Birmingham and saved more than 14,000 meals from becoming waste.

Co-founder Chris Wilson said: “Our mission is to place the lost value back onto food as something which belongs in bellies, not bins - all while helping local restaurants and businesses to thrive.

“Users have access to delicious food at more affordable prices whilst restaurants can make a profit on food they would otherwise throw in the bin. Aside from this, our main aim is to put a desperately needed dent in the 600,000 tonnes of food that is wasted by restaurants each year.”

Too Good To Go also operates a ‘pay it forward’ scheme via the app, which allows users to donate meals to homeless people and others in need for as little as £1.

The app is available to download for free on Android and iOS now.