Japanese coffee shop chain Excelsior to minimize food waste by tapping food-sharing service

Popular Japanese coffee shop chain Excelsior Caffé has introduced food-sharing service TABETE at 50 locations.

TABETE, one of the largest food-sharing platforms in Japan, allows users to "rescue" still edible food items from restaurants and other food providers that would otherwise be discarded.

The popular service, operated by COOKING Co Ltd., already has 1,700 participating stores.

With Excelsior Caffé joining, there would be an additional 50.

Excelsior Caffé has 123 stores offering high-quality coffee roasted in-house, as well as its carefully selected food products.

Excelsior Caffé discards sandwiches and other items that are prepared in the store that cannot be carried over to the next day, baked goods that are slightly damaged during delivery or when placed on display, or goods that are close to their expiration dates.

Dotour Coffee Co Ltd, which operates the Excelsior Caffé stores, says that TABETE provided an excellent method of reducing such food waste.

After a successful trial at six stores in Tokyo which resulted in 104 kilograms of food being rescued by customers, they decided to make their collaboration with TABETE official and expand the service to 50 stores, with more locations to be added in the future.