A new brand partnership between Ziploc and Too Good To Go is putting food-waste reduction squarely in the off-premise conversation, launching a campaign called Surprise Seconds that aims to close the gap between rescued restaurant food and what actually happens to it once it reaches consumers' refrigerators.
The collaboration carries direct relevance for foodservice operators: Too Good To Go's existing network of 200,000 active restaurant and retail partners already routes surplus food to consumers at a discount through its Surprise Bag platform. Surprise Seconds extends that chain, pairing Ziploc's storage solutions with chef-led recipe content to convert restaurant leftovers and carry-home extras into entirely new meals — addressing a consumer behavior gap that costs operators goodwill and contributes to broader supply-chain waste.
The Consumer Data
A July 2026 survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, commissioned by Ziploc and conducted by Atomik Research, underscores the scale of the behavioral disconnect. While 91.0% of respondents said avoiding food waste is important to them, 36.0% admitted to discarding food at least once a week. Most strikingly, 64.0% reported throwing away food that was still safe to eat because they didn't know what to do with it — and only 26.0% said they regularly transform leftovers into a new dish. Nearly one in four (23.0%) identified recipe ideas, meal inspiration, and better storage as the most useful interventions.
For foodservice operators tracking off-premise satisfaction and repeat purchase intent, those numbers point to a tangible friction point in the consumer journey after the check is closed or the delivery bag is unpacked. If nearly two-thirds of diners are discarding carry-home food rather than consuming it, the perceived value of portion sizes and take-home packaging drops accordingly — a unit-economics concern that extends well beyond simple sustainability optics.
The NYC Activation
The campaign's flagship event, Wheel of Sandwiches, is set for September 30 in New York City. The interactive food-truck experience is led by chef Yara Herrera, chef-partner at Hellbender, a critically regarded Mexican American restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens. Attendees spin a wheel that lands on a signature dish from a participating Too Good To Go restaurant partner; Herrera then serves a sandwich built from that dish's components — a live demonstration of the "first to second" transformation the campaign promotes.
Chris MacAulay, Vice President of Operations for North America at Too Good To Go, framed the partnership as a handoff model: "Too Good To Go helps get surplus food into people's hands, while Ziploc Brand helps them keep it fresh and find new ways to enjoy it." Supporting the activation, Ziploc is running an out-of-home advertising series — First And Seconds — that visualizes the same arc from original dish through storage to reinvented meal, with QR codes directing consumers to a dedicated campaign hub at ziploc.com/food-for-thought.
For chain operators and fast-casual brands already enrolled in Too Good To Go's Surprise Bag program, the Surprise Seconds campaign functions as downstream marketing for their own surplus inventory — an increasingly important channel as food-waste reduction moves from CSR footnote to P&L line item. Too Good To Go reports 120 million registered users across 20 countries and more than 600 million meals saved since its 2016 launch, a scale that gives the platform meaningful reach into the QSR, fast-casual, and bakery-café segments it serves. Coverage of related sustainability and supply-chain trends in foodservice and off-premise channel strategy continues to shape how operators approach leftover and surplus food programs.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
