A STIRLING business has become the first to introduce a food waste reduction scheme in the area.

Murray Place eatery Our Place Café is the first outlet to sign up to the global smartphone app Too Good To Go, which aims to reduce food waste by allowing users to purchase unsold food from local eateries at a discounted price.

Users of the service purchase a Magic Bag of delicious food which is still edible, but unsold that day and collect it at the end of the day when the business is closing.

The café’s food manager Helen Rodgers said: “It’s been an unprecedented success since we joined a couple of weeks ago.

“We’ve been selling out as early as 9 am some days, and the feedback has been great.

“On average we put £10 - £15 worth of food in each bag so it’s great that it’s not going to waste and we get some income from it too.

“All our food is freshly prepared here in our kitchen each morning so our customers are making savings on the food we can no longer sell but is perfectly good to eat.”

MSP Bruce Crawford welcomed the initiative and was on hand the launch the app at the Stirling eatery.

He said: “How we reduce food waste is a big conversation in the Scottish Parliament at the moment and it is clear that combining technology with a new attitude in business is what is required so that we can help cut down what we throw out.

“Food waste contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions, so what we do today to tackle it will have a big impact in the future.

“I am delighted to have been asked to officially launch this app in the Our Place Café in Stirling.

“It is a great café – serving some pretty spectacular soup – and I am delighted that it has taken this innovating approach by signing up to the Too Good To Go app!”