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A food waste-saving scheme launched in Dunedin yesterday is aimed at delivering ‘‘win-win’’ benefits for city residents, cafes and the environment.

The new approach uses a mobile app which connects its users to food retailers and eateries with surplus food — saving money and cutting food waste, organisers say.

Foodprint’s users can explore new eateries through the app and buy food at 50% of the usual cost — thus keeping good food out of landfills, where the waste can produce greenhouse gas.

Payments are made through the app, and buyers visit participating outlets to pick up previously purchased items.

Foodprint founder Michal Garvey says New Zealand cafes, restaurants and supermarkets produce 50,000 tonnes of food waste annually and Foodprint aims to reduce this.

About 60% of the waste was preventable, and more than 20,000 people had used the app since its launch in Auckland last June, Foodprint said.

Dunedin City Council Good Food Dunedin project co-ordinator Ruth Zeinert said introducing the app at a second New Zealand city, Dunedin, yesterday was a ‘‘fantastic’’ outcome.

‘‘It’s a win-win for the consumer, who gets lovely food half-price,’’ Ms Zeinert said.

It was also a win for businesses who gained access to new consumers and markets.

‘‘And it’s a win for the environment,’’ she added.

After Foodprint founder Michal Garvey had won an award for the app late last year, Ms Zeinert had approached her and suggested Dunedin become the second city for the app.

Dunedin businessman Chin Loh owns Marbecks Foodstore and Watson’s Eatery, both in the Wall Street Mall, and both are among several Dunedin food outlets participating in the scheme.

Food waste had long been a problem in the hospitality trade, and he believed that bringing the app to Dunedin would bring benefits, including for the environment, and the app would ‘‘work great’’.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz