How to Use TABETE in Fukuoka City: Find Shops in the App, No Cancellation for Your Own Reasons

TABETE is a food-waste reduction app. There is no sign-up fee or monthly fee. Shops list food they may not manage to sell, and you buy it in the app and pick it up at the shop. Fukuoka City is named in the official FAQ as one of the cities with many shops listed. However, the official site has no list of participating shops in the city, and you look for each day’s listings in the app. After you buy, you cannot cancel or get a refund for your own reasons. If you cannot go, you use the “gift function” to hand the pick-up to another user.

In short

Free to register, no monthly fee. You pay only the price of each item.
Find shops in the app by station name or prefecture, not on the website.
Pay by credit card (VISA, Mastercard, American Express, JCB), in the cardholder’s own name.
No cancellation or refund for your own reasons. Use the gift function if you cannot go.

Checked with official pages on October 25, 2026 (Japan time).

Note: The official site and FAQ are in Japanese. This page does not say whether the app has an English display.

1. How it works: shops list unsold food and users pick it up

At TABETE, bakeries, cake shops, hotels, restaurants and supermarkets list food that is still good to eat but hard to sell out before closing. Users buy it and go to the shop to pick it up. The official site calls this purchase a “rescue”. It may be the same item as in the shop, or a shop’s own menu made from test dishes, staff meals or offcuts. The official site says there is no registration or monthly fee, and you pay only the price of the item at the time of purchase. TABETE official FAQ for users (Japanese)

今日もTABETEには、まだおいしく食べられる「レスキュー待ち商品」が並んでいます。
「今日はこれにしようかな」
そんな気軽な選択が、食品ロス削減につながります。

無理のない範囲で、ご協力いただけたらうれしいです。#TABETEレスキュー報告 #食品ロス削減 pic.twitter.com/U4IN0fO0bS
— TABETE(タベテ)公式 (@tabete_me) January 30, 2026

2. From sign-up to pick-up, and how to look in Fukuoka City

The flow shown on the official top page has 3 steps: look for a nearby shop or item in the app, choose a pick-up time and pay by credit card, then go to the shop at that time and show the app screen. To pick up, you show the ticket in the “Rescue” tab to the shop staff. You can search for nearby shops in the search box by nearest station or prefecture.

For Fukuoka City, the official FAQ lists it, with the Tokyo area, Sapporo, Kanazawa, Osaka and Nagoya, as a city “with many shops listed”. The operator, CoCooking Inc., announced that in April 2020 it signed an agreement with Fukuoka City on testing the effect of reducing food loss. But the official site has no list of participating shops in the city and no area information, so you can only check today’s listings in the app. For some shops, such as convenience stores and supermarkets, it is an “approval-type rescue”, where the item and price are fixed after the shop approves. TABETE official site (Japanese)

3. Prices, payment and cancellation rules

Each shop sets the price for each listing. The shop FAQ gives a range of ¥100 to ¥5,980, and both the original price and the rescue price are shown tax included. Payment is by credit card (VISA, Mastercard, American Express, JCB), including cards registered in Apple Pay or Google Pay, and the terms of use say the card must be in your own name. The “rescue completion email” sent at payment serves as the receipt.

Cancellation is strict. The official site states that it does not accept cancellations or refunds for your own reasons after purchase. If you pass the pick-up deadline set by the shop, you cannot receive the item and cannot ask for a refund or a replacement. Refunds are limited to cases such as a listing mistake by the shop, a change in stock, a shop not approving an approval-type rescue, or a serious quality problem that the shop agrees with, and you must apply within 3 days of the purchase date. If something urgent comes up and you cannot go, the official site recommends the “gift function”, which hands the pick-up to another user. Refund and cancellation policy (Japanese)

4. What to know before you use it

According to the official FAQ, many listings are “lucky bag” style, where you do not know what is inside until just before, and you cannot ask for a specific item or a swap because of allergies. Because it is hard to list allergen information accurately, you are advised to check directly with the shop or not to buy if you are worried. Some listings have short pick-up windows, and the official site asks you to check the “pick-up time” and “distance to the shop” before buying. Changes to the pick-up time must be made by contacting the shop directly. In-app FAQ (payment and pick-up) (Japanese)

5. Checklist before you go

Finish registering in the app and setting up a credit card in your own name.
Check that you can reach the shop within the pick-up time, taking the distance into account.
You cannot choose what is inside, so if you are concerned about allergies, ask the shop before buying.
You cannot cancel for your own reasons, so think before paying on a day when your plans are uncertain.

Today’s listings are whatever the app shows when you search Fukuoka City. Once you know the system and the rules, install the app from the TABETE official site (Japanese) and check that day’s listings.

Sources

5 pages we checked