App aims to help restaurants reduce food waste

A new mobile app has an aim to help restaurants eliminate food waste.

The app, called Frenzi, is created by a couple of ASU students.

"I figured a lot of restaurants sort of deal with this problem at the end of the day, having excess food that's fresh and ready to go, but just hasn't yet been sold," said Ricky Johnson, one of the app's creators.

Johnson felt there could be something done to solve the issue of food waste, so he, along with Brandon Caffie, developed the app a couple of months ago. The goal is to help restaurants gain more foot traffic during their slow periods, while providing customers with discounted food.

A win-win for both.

"Restaurants want to give out that food, that's the intent of this application, and so, some of the customer's perspective is to say, hey OK, cake that normally cost $5, you could get for 50%-60% discount, why not take advantage of that?" said Caffie.

App users are notified of deals in their area. Some restaurants in the Valley are testing out the app, and are excited about the new concept. Tucker Bascom said with the app, they are able to make a little bit of money, but the main purpose is to avoid food waste.

"At the end of the day, it's just waste prevention," said Bascom. "That's an environmental thing, and that's a win for the customers. That's really what our intention is."

The free app can be found on iTunes, and it is going to launch on Google Play in January.