Kenya wastes a lot of food. Too much of it. As prices rise and households feel the squeeze, a new local app wants to turn near-expiry meals into cheaper options.
Msossi is launching in Kenya this month with a simple to help supermarkets, restaurants, and hotels sell surplus food fast, at steep discounts.
How will it work?
Msossi links food businesses directly to nearby consumers. Stores list excess or near-expiry items, and shoppers buy them at reduced prices. Businesses recover some value so less food gets thrown away.
An estimated 30 to 40% of food produced in Kenya is lost each year through spoilage or expiry.
That translates into billions of shillings in losses. It also deepens food insecurity and adds pressure on landfills and emissions.
Msossi’s bet is that speed and pricing solve much of the problem. Discount the food heavily, move it quickly and make it easy to list and buy.
Kevin Otiende, Msossi’s co-founder and CEO, says the numbers inside food businesses explain the urgency.
“Over the past one year, we’ve immersed into the operations of supermarkets and restaurants and discovered that supermarkets lose between 5-12% of their fresh food to wastage, while restaurants are losing up to 30%. Our platform enables restaurants, supermarkets, and hotels to sell surplus food quickly at attractive prices. This helps consumers access affordable nutrition while addressing a serious environmental and economic challenge.”
The app targets two groups; consumers looking for cheaper meals. Businesses trying to cut waste without complex processes or donations that never quite work at scale.
Msossi tracks food saved, meals rescued, and estimated carbon reductions. For large retailers and hotel chains, that data feeds into ESG and CSR reports without extra effort.
Msossi plans a nationwide rollout. However, the focus, for now, is execution. Can it get enough stores listing food daily? Can it train customers to buy meals they did not plan for? And can discounts move fast enough to beat the expiry clock?
If it works, less food goes to waste and more people eat for less. That alone would be a meaningful shift.
