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Daily Mirror
03-08-2025
- Daily Mirror
Brit tourist warning as travellers urged to avoid common buffet mistake
Whilst all-inclusive holidays are a popular option for many, there are certain risks travellers need to be aware of before jetting off, and one expert has shared some top tips A travel expert has issued a stark warning that while all-inclusive getaways might appear tempting, they can pose certain dangers. Before flying out to your resort, it's crucial to understand potential threats, particularly when it comes to food and drinks. Grant Winter, a compliance officer at travel insurance company Good To Go, warns that food in certain destinations may harbour illnesses such as cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis A. More frequently, though, holidaymakers could be struck down by a. nasty bout of sickness and diarrhoea from food or beverages contaminated with bacteria the body is not used to. To help guarantee tourists can enjoy their getaway without being stuck in their rooms, Winter has the following dos and don'ts... Brits face horrible consequences if they fall for new 'free surgery' holiday scam Brits warned vaping in popular holiday hotspot could land them in prison Water He highlights the significance of water safety, recommending travellers choose bottled water as the most dependable option when overseas, even if internet sources suggest local tap water is safe. He insists: "Ensure the lid of the bottle is well sealed before you drink it. If you can't get access to bottled water for whatever reason, only drink tap water that has been boiled, use chlorine tablets or iodine to sterilise the water. "Always be sure to avoid prolonged exposure to iodine though - this method isn't best when doing it more than once or twice." Buffet dangers Grant cautions against eating cooked food that's been left out for too long. He recommends hitting the all-inclusive buffet early to avoid food that's been exposed to the elements for a prolonged period. He further advises: "It's also better to avoid food that has flies buzzing around it, and only eat raw fruit and vegetables that you have peeled yourself to reduce the risk of contamination." Steer clear of ice While water should be approached with caution, ice presents another problem, as Grant explains. "Don't forget about the risk of ice cubes in your drinks. In many cases, these are probably made from untreated tap water (however, some large resorts do use bottled water, so it's always worth checking), which can cause you to get sick." Be aware of food poisoning risks Grant emphasises that you "should always check to see if the food is piping hot throughout before eating, but when abroad you should be extra vigilant of this. "For example, eating tropical fish that haven't been cooked properly can lead to ciguatera fish poisoning, and unpasteurised dairy such as ice cream from a street vendor, could harbour salmonella, listeria, or campylobacter, leading to food poisoning." Don't forget personal hygiene The expert emphasised that, although it may seem self-evident, this should be your "number one priority abroad to help avoid food poisoning and contamination. Always wash your hands after the toilet and before eating or preparing food, and make sure you take an alcohol-based hand gel to use when you're out and about before eating any food."
Telegraph
16-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
I was £4,000 out of pocket for five months because my travel insurance mistook euros for pounds
Dear Gill, On February 8, the final night of a family holiday in Lanzarote, I became unwell with a violent sickness. At the airport, the following morning, I required wheelchair assistance to reach the gate where staff called for a medical assessment. An ambulance was called and I was taken to hospital where I spent four days recovering from a serious bout of gastroenteritis. My wife liaised with the emergency assistance company nominated by our insurer, Good to Go, with whom I had an annual Gold level policy. We were told that we should pay for the treatment and all costs would be met once we submitted invoices on our return. On my return, I duly completed the claim form and prepared an Excel spreadsheet listing the 29 attachments (invoices, bank statements, medical treatment notes, etc) which were sent by recorded delivery to Global Response (IMG), the insurer's claims handler, on February 14. It is now July and my claim for just under £4,000 remains unpaid. Please can you find out why there has been this inordinate delay. – Paul Furlong Dear Paul, Since Paul's submission in February, IMG's agents have claimed that the delays were due to missing original documents (since found in their offices) and issues with verifying the accuracy of his policy's medical health declaration with his GP's submission. After Paul complained about the delay, IMG's 'Quality Assurance Team' reviewed his case and sent a rambling cut-and-paste letter saying it was waiting for a flight booking confirmation (already supplied) and that there remained disparities between the amounts on the hospital bills and the bank statements supplied. It turned out that the claims handler hadn't clocked that the hospital's bills were in euros and the bank statements were in sterling until Paul pointed out this simple explanation for the discrepancies. I contacted the Ancile Insurance Group (Good to Go Insurance is one of its brand names) and asked it to find out why IMG was taking so long to authorise payment of Paul's claim. Within a week of my complaint, Paul's claim was paid out in full, together with an extra 10 percent in compensation for the mismanagement of his case. Ancile admits there were 'internal administrative errors' and acknowledges that communication could have been clearer. 'We've since addressed the issues raised and have made broader improvements to the claims process,' says a spokesperson, 'including communication, streamlined document handling, and simplified currency conversions'. If you are admitted to hospital abroad, try to obtain a printed signed copy of the doctor's report confirming your illness and treatment and the originals of all paid bills before leaving the hospital, as obtaining copies later can prove troublesome.
The Irish Sun
02-07-2025
- Business
- The Irish Sun
I tested a food waste app for a week – it cost half as much as my usual shop but there was a big downside
I TRIED to survive off nearly-scrapped meals for a week through a food wastage scheme offering wonky veg and restaurant leftovers at bargain prices. The app definitely saved me money - but there was a big downside. Advertisement 5 From the first £4 box I managed to whip up a Moroccan-style cous cous and spicy tomato salsa Here's how it works... You open the Too Good To Go app and set the location radius from between 1km and 30km to scout out the options in your area. There are establishments offering meals and groceries, as well as bakeries and shops selling breads and pastries. Each shop will have a surprise bag (or box) of surplus goods that are about to go off, and will set a pick-up window for collection. Advertisement You won't know what you've got until you open your bag - which is all part of the fun, but can be quite annoying as I learned. Even with the same shop, what you get will change with each order on a daily basis. What you receive depends on what is left over at the end of the day, although the app does tell you what you can expect as a rough guide. Days 1 & 2: A box of limp veg Day one and my first problem arose - trying to find a Too Good To Go option that I could pick up outside of my working hours. Fortunately, I found a £4 surprise bag from Petit Village, a nearby green grocers roughly a 15 minute walk from my house. Advertisement It was the last one left, and had a decent collection time between 12pm and 6pm. From worm bread to mealworm kebabs... could eating bugs and insects in everyday food be the future? I dashed off after to work to go collect my bounty. While some establishments will need to cook or pack your food once you arrive to collect your order, others - like Petit Village - will have your surprise bag ready and waiting. I showed the man behind the counter my collection code, and confirmed in the app that I was collecting, before being handed a crate full of vegetables. I got a bag of cherry tomatoes, three larger tomatoes, two avocados, a head of lettuce, a green pepper, four red chillies, seven carrots and a fistful of beets. Advertisement Now, these vegetables were pretty limp, one of the avocados was squishy, some of the carrots were bendy and the lettuce had certainly seen better days. But that's the whole point, right? They were all edible (apart from a funky-looking carrot I composted). And as another example of technological brilliance (or laziness) I used ChatGPT to conjure meals with those exact ingredients. You can do the same, with my prompt: "Please give me five recipe ideas using at least four of the following ingredients..." and then list your produce. Advertisement You can even throw in a few bits you might already have in your cupboard - like pasta or cous cous, or some stuff lurking in the freezer. All the options sounded great, and I reworked a roasted vegetable salad suggestion into a Moroccan-style cous cous, and whipped up a spicy tomato salsa and guacamole to have with some chips. The lettuce went into a salad along with the second avocado and some more cherry tomatoes on Day 2, which paired nicely with a fishcake I had in the freezer. When it comes to making meals with surplus goods - time is of the essence. You don't have long until these veg are deemed inedible. Advertisement That's when I start looking for my next meal... 5 Days 3 and 4: Monster lasagna At this point, my box of veg is running low - and it's all getting too limp for my liking. The night before, I tapped 'buy' on a £3.99 surprise bag from The Laundry, a popular restaurant in London's Brixton that is a two minute walk from a friend's flat. It's a lovely restaurant that my friend and I have been meaning to try for a while - where a main costs between £18 and £26. Advertisement So, £3.99 is a steal - and the generous portion of lasagne with a side of carrots and roasted butternut squash tasted really good. It even had a decent collection slot of between 10am and 11:40am - which I could dash out to as I wasn't working that day. This was my lunch on Day 3, and even on Day 4 - the portion really was of monster proportions. One surprise box from this place could honestly feed two! WHAT OPTIONS ARE THERE? There are all kinds of shops, bakeries, cafes, restaurants, and supermarkets giving food away for cheap on the Too Good To Go app. Shops include: Aldi, Morrisons, Co-op, Budgens, Londis, Nisa and even M&S. Restaurants and cafes include: Greggs, Pizza Express, Fireaway, Costa, Starbucks, Pret, Cafe Nero, Gail's, Yo Sushi, Carluccios, Harvester, Toby Carvery and more. Some train stations even have options. Plus, there are tons of independent cafes, restaurants, bakeries and delis if you want to try something new without breaking the bank. You will have more options in large towns and cities, like London. Although some quieter parts of the capital do seem a bit short of choice. Smaller places and villages might not have any retailers listed - and when they do, you could have some competition. 5 Advertisement Days 4 and 5: Mid Mediterranean Now even though I have lunch lined up for Day 4 - I need to be alert to what my options are for the rest of the day. All the best deals get snapped up quick. So on a hot day, I opted for a £5.20 surprise bag from Paella Street, a stall at Tabard Street Food Market, just a 10 minute walk from the office. It was supposed to be a post-lunchtime deal, and gave me the smallest collection window I had encountered yet: between 2pm and 2:15pm. I received two very sweaty boxes of vegan paella - which wouldn't have cost much more to have fresh. Advertisement And to be honest, the state of them left me Googling how to revive old paella. However, once successfully revived on the hob at home, just one box of the two made a very nice dinner. The other I stuck in the freezer for a rainy day. 5 It also helps to check the app the night before you want to pick up the food Credit: Too Good To Go Day 6: Out of options At this point, I'm running out of options. Advertisement I have a choice to make: eat baked goods for dinner (not ideal), or wait until 10pm to collect a meal suitable enough for tea (also not ideal). This is where I had to draw the line and go to an actual supermarket. But it taught me an important lesson about the best time to buy surprise goodies on Too Good To Go. BEST TIME TO BUY The price of some surprise bags drops as the collection time approaches - these are the establishments with a 'dynamic pricing' tag on them. The Too Good To Go app will adjust the discount level on surprise bags based on in-app behaviour - to try and tempt people to snag food that would otherwise go to waste. It also helps to check the app the night before you want to pick up the food. While the prices may be slightly more expensive, you'll be able to actually get what you want - i.e. groceries over baked goods (or vice versa) - and at decent collection times. But ultimately, you'll have to go when you can. The verdict I have spent a total of £13.19 in five days, over three payments. That's about £4.40 on average - nearly half what I would usually spend on eating per day. Advertisement I usually spend around £170 a month on groceries, across an average of 19 transactions - which is nearly £9 on average every time I go to the shops. So it does work out cheaper - but is it worth it? Pros: Good variety of food Pushes you out of your comfort zone Great if you can be spontaneous Even better if you use to supplement a slightly smaller weekly shop Cheap way to try local restaurants Reduces food waste Cons: Often inconvenient in terms of collection hours or location Not good for people with allergies or dietary requirements 5 It works out cheaper - and the pros outweigh the cons Credit: Getty Advertisement
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Yahoo
Police agencies across Western Washington warn of text scams
Multiple police agencies across Western Washington posted on social media this week, warning communities to look out for toll road text scams. The scammers send texts claiming to be from the DMV, the 'Seattle Vehicle Administration,' or Good To Go!, claiming that the user owes toll money and will face penalties if they do not pay via a link in the text. Police are warning people NOT to click these links. Back in March, KIRO 7 spoke to a Washington couple who wanted to warn the public after they lost more than $23,000 to the scam. 'They're good. They're really good. That chick knew everything. She said the right things and reassured us we were doing the right thing, and the whole time we weren't,' they said. The scammer used personal details to lead the couple into losing thousands. 'If you have any doubts at all, hang up and call the institution directly,' they said. As a reminder, WSDOT never texts toll notices, uses web addresses ending in '. and only sends reminders through mail or an official account. If you get a text from one of these scammers, Des Moines PD advises you not to reply, block the caller, and don't reply. You can also report the message as junk/spam. If concerned, you can check your account by visiting directly or by calling WSDOT. Here's a roundup of the local police agency posts:
Axios
27-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Too Good To Go app aims to cut food waste in Utah with cheap groceries
The global anti-food waste app Too Good To Go is expanding to Salt Lake City, the company announced last week. Why it matters: About one-third of all food in the U.S. is thrown away, per the USDA, even as food insecurity rises. The big picture: Too Good To Go connects local restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores to consumers eager to buy surplus food at a fraction of the original price, says Allie Denburg, U.S. strategy and planning lead at Too Good To Go. Zoom in: Consumers typically pay half or one-third of the retail value for leftover food that's still fresh and safe to eat. Businesses pay an annual fee (typically $89) and $1.79 per bag sold. The app tracks each user's lifetime savings and offers at-home waste-cutting tips. How it works: Download the app and create a profile.
