Tech start-up, treatsure, tackles food waste with hotels and event planners

In 2016, Singaporean, Preston Wong witnessed his family throwing out consumable but expiring food from his fridge. He asked himself if it was possible to have an app to redistribute food to others.

After brainstorming with a team of National University of Singapore developers, they built and launched an app within a year. The startup, named treatsure, tackles food wastage and promotes food sustainability. The app connects businesses such as hotels with surplus food to consumers. Wong, co-founder of treatsure, and his team also came up with a unique buffet-in-a-box concept for users to choose and take away surplus food from hotel buffets following different meal slots of a day.

The app is available on App Store and Play Store. During the pandemic, Wong and his team launched stay-home treat offerings and advocated a treat-bute campaign for migrant workers. Then came the launch of their first concept store in the Singapore’s Central Business District in 2021.

The business has now emerged as Singapore’s leading app platform for surplus food in hotels and grocers, with over 80,000 users and 50 tonnes of food saved annually.

The business has three main arms: hotels/buffets, grocers and corporate sustainability. Hotel partners include The Westin Singapore, Grand Hyatt, Voco Orchard Singapore, and Grand Copthorne Waterfront Singapore. The platform helps hotels to recover costs, reduce waste and brand their venues as sustainability advocates.

Consumers benefit by saving on food costs and reducing food waste through ordering takeaways. They can also make online purchases for surplus groceries from partners such as F&N, Gardenia, Sky Greens, and SALADSTOP!

Istana welcome

Last month, treatsure found its strongest endorsement when it was engaged by the Prime Minister's Office to coordinate the sustainability aspects of a lunch reception at the Istana, and to work with its hotel and catering partners to organise the lunch reception for Istana guests.

Said Wong: “We are honoured and grateful for the opportunity to be engaged by the Prime Minister's Office to plan and coordinate a zero-waste, sustainable lunch reception at the Istana. Not only did we showcase to government leaders how surplus, sustainable and local ingredients can be transformed into beautiful dishes, we also raised awareness on how each individual and organisation can play a part in reducing and recycling waste.”

There were around 250 to 280 government officials at the reception. Some 16 dishes were created with the support of treatsure’s catering partner, Le Rainbow Catering and hotel partners, Swissôtel the Stamford, and Fairmont Singapore. “These were produced from a mix of surplus, local and sustainable ingredients from treatsure's suppliers. We minimised wastage and sent the remainder for waste recycling,” added Wong.

Goals for 2024

Wong invites event planners to engage treatsure to advise and coordinate the sustainability aspect of their meetings and meals to help their organisations achieve ESG goals.

Said Wong: “From our expertise and networks, we can assist companies in sustainable procurement and planning of the event, while communicating to guests the importance of topics such as waste reduction, segregation, recycling and upcycling. We could also collaborate with the MICE industry to reduce the food wastage from their events.”