Refreshi is South Africa's first food rescue app. It connects you with surplus food from local restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets and cafés, sold as Surprise Bags at up to 50% off the retail price. Good food that would otherwise be binned, available to you for a fraction of the cost.

Why does all this surplus food exist?

Surplus is built into the food business. Stores overproduce to avoid running out. Strict sell-by dates push perfectly good food off the shelf before it's actually past its best. And daily demand is unpredictable, so even well-run kitchens end up with leftovers at the end of service.

None of that food is spoiled. It's simply food that hasn't sold during the trading day, and it usually gets thrown away at closing time.

A win for everyone

For consumers, Refreshi means serious savings and the chance to discover new stores. A bag worth R120 to R150 in retail value costs R39 to R49. For stores, it turns unsold food into revenue instead of a write-off, and cuts waste disposal costs at the same time.

Refreshi Exchange

For surplus at a larger scale, Refreshi Exchange is the B2B counterpart. It connects food businesses with vetted buyers like food banks, wholesalers and caterers, so bulk surplus that's too big for consumer Surprise Bags still finds a home.