What Is A Meal Kit & How Do They Work?
Meal kits have exploded in popularity over the last decade, making them a mainstream service. With all this talk about what meal kits are, how they work, what the best companies for meal kits are and how to choose a good one, we’ve created this complete guide to help you navigate the world of meal kits.
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What Is a Meal Kit?
A meal kit is a subscription service or one-time purchase that delivers pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to your door, so you cook the meal yourself. Unlike fully-prepared meal delivery, meal kits require you to do the cooking, while removing the menu planning and grocery shopping.
The meal kit business model started in Denmark, with early services dating back to 2003. Companies like Mad til Døren and RetNemt led the way, showing how convenient home-delivered ingredients could revolutionize cooking.
As of 2024, the global meal kit delivery market has reached an estimated $25 billion in value, and industry experts project it will exceed $30 billion by 2025. Ongoing trends include expanded dietary options, faster shipping, and more flexible customization features, reflecting the market’s continued growth.
How Do Meal Kits Work?
Most meal kits follow a simple step-by-step process:
- Choose your recipes from a weekly menu
- Select the number of meals and servings
- Follow the provided recipes to cook and enjoy at home
Meal kits save time and reduce food waste, with most recipes taking 20–40 minutes to prepare.
Nonetheless, let’s go through how a typical meal kit delivery service works on a weekly basis, using HelloFresh as an example.
Step 1: Choose Your Meals
The first step is where the fun starts…choosing what you want to eat. There are so many new, delicious recipes every single week! Most meal kits will offer 2-5 meals with portion sizes for either 2-4 people. This makes them ideal for families, couples, or people who just want an extra portion.
There are also tons of meal kit services that can cater to your specific dietary needs. Whether you’re keto, gluten-free, vegan or vegetarian, there’s an option out there for you!
Once you’ve selected a plan that suits your lifestyle, you can choose shipping options to ensure that you’re home to receive the box.
You can also pause, skip, or cancel your subscription at any time.
Step 2: Receive Your First Box
A chilled, insulated box of high-quality ingredients arrives at your door. If you aren’t home when the delivery arrives, don’t worry! Each box is carefully packaged with insulation and ice packs to ensure that your food won’t spoil for 6-8 hours.
Once you’ve taken your box inside and opened it you’ll find several things:
- All the pre-portioned vegetables, sauces, and proteins
- A nice easy-to-follow recipe with high-quality images (just to make sure you’re on the right track)
One thing I’ll note is that meal boxes assume you have basic cooking ingredients such as oil, butter, salt, and pepper. They also assume you have some pots or pans and appropriate kitchen utensils, so these won’t be found in your meal kit.
Step 3: Cook A Meal
Here’s where the exciting part truly begins. For anyone out there that’s a kitchen newbie, myself included, the cooking process is incredibly simple and to the point where I feel comfortable having my daughter cook all our meals as I supervise.
This week, Warm Mexican-Style Bean Bowls are on the menu and I couldn’t be more excited!
Step 4: Time to Eat!
After you’ve put together the recipe, it’s time to enjoy this delicious food. I put on my favorite television show, resist my cat trying to steal a bean, and relish in my tasty feast.
Which Meal Kit Is the Most Popular?
1. HelloFresh
HelloFresh (SEHK: HFG) is rated highly by Consumer Reports, citing fresh ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes. They have one of the best meal plans in the industry with new weekly recipes allowing picky eaters to find something they’ll like.
While they don’t have tons of plant-based recipes for our vegan friends, they have plenty of vegetarian options, many of which are naturally vegan or require minimal swap-outs at home.
One additional thing that I love about HelloFresh is its commitment to the environment. They offset 100% of their greenhouse gas emissions in addition to innovating on the ways they package their ingredients to make them more sustainable!
Delivery: Canada and the United States
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2. Chefs Plate
If HelloFresh is the gold standard for meal kit delivery services, Chefs Plate is the platinum standard. This meal kit company’s budget-friendly pricing structure and versatility make it great.
Each month they have 22 new recipes with options that take as little as 15 minutes to make. Additionally, they consistently bring back customer favorites and have the option to add additional appetizers or salads. This system ensures that you’ll always have delicious food delivered straight to your door.
Lastly, they also have an app that allows you to easily manage your subscription making them one of the most convenient and straightforward meal kits on the market right now.
Delivery: Only Canada
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3. Blue Apron
Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN) offers exceptionally delicious meals for a reasonable price, making Blue Apron one of HelloFresh’s biggest competitors.
What I love about Blue Apron is the versatile meal plan options. Blue Apron offers everything from ready-to-cook all the way to heat and eat. This makes them super convenient if I’m running late and need to get my daughter lunch for school!
At Blue Apron, they have thought of everything so I always feel prepared no matter the occasion.
Have a fancy dinner club next week and you’re worried your cooking is not up to par? Order their premium dishes, their steak is juicy and well-seasoned!
Looking to do a detox after eating at McDonald’s for one too many meals? Try their wellness dishes, their couscous bowls are bursting with flavor!
Are you super interested in desserts but don’t know where to start? Try their dessert dishes, their cupcakes are to die for!
Delivery: Only the United States
Blue Apron
$11.99Per Serving
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4. Every Plate
Every Plate is the most affordable meal kit on the market. You’ll never have to worry about breaking the bank as it only costs $4.99 per serving. Additionally, all of their recipes are very user-friendly and require only 6 steps.
However, don’t mistake budget friendly for low quality. Every Plate consistently brings new flavors and delicious meal items that you could easily be charged $50 at a premium restaurant.
Delivery: Only the United States
EveryPlate
$4.99Per Serving
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5. Marley Spoon
This is Martha Stewart’s meal kit and what I love the most about it are the family-friendly options. They create recipes that take less than 30 minutes that your children will love.
I know that my daughter has been super receptive to their recipes and she is usually a very picky eater. Overall, Marley Spoon has been great as I don’t have to sacrifice flavour for healthiness.
Delivery: Only the United States
Martha and Marley Spoon
$8.49Per Serving
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6. Fresh Prep
Fresh Prep is one of the best options for meal kit delivery when it comes to organic ingredients and sustainable practices. They’re a certified B-corporation and continue to find ways to improve its environmental impact.
All of their meals are delivered in reusable, insulated and sanitized cooler bags with a reusable ingredients container (instead of packaging everything in single-use plastic pouches). They specifically base their meals around seasonal ingredients to reduce their carbon footprint and create fewer emissions.
Another element that makes them one of the best meal kits is that they pre-cut their vegetables, in addition to pre-portioning their ingredients, which saves on meal cooking time. As a kitchen novice, I can’t tell you how much time I have saved from this carefully planned detail.
Lastly, their meal kits cater to many different dietary preferences. They have vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and carb-conscious meals. For the meat-lovers, they also serve premium antibiotic-free poultry and MSC or Ocean Wise certified seafood.
Delivery: British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Ontario in Canada
Fresh Prep
$11.30Per Serving
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Why Do People Use Meal Kit Services?
To Save Money
Contrary to popular belief, I’ve found that meal kits are more budget-friendly than you think. Once you divide the cost into the actual price per portion, it becomes evident that meal kits are a great way to save money.
Food waste is a huge problem in North America. Having pre-portioned ingredients prevents you from throwing out excess ingredients, saving you money and helping the environment.
To Save Time
One of the best qualities of using a meal kit business is their ability to save you time compared to other ways of eating.
When you add up the time spent making a grocery shopping list every week, planning weekly menus for yourself or your family, finding ingredients, and measuring portion size of the food, it becomes evident that using meal delivery kits can give you so much more time to spend doing the things you love.
Whether you chose to spend that extra time with your family, seeing friends, working on a side hustle, or enjoying some much-needed relaxation time, that part’s up to you!
To Escape Your Comfort Zone
Rather than sticking to the same boring food at home, or picking up the same frozen prepared meals from the grocery store when you’re in a pinch, using a meal delivery service pushes you out of your comfort zone and lets you try a new meal selection every day.
One of the unique features of meal kit delivery services is that they’re an excellent way of discovering new recipes you’ve never even thought to try. Many meal kit delivery services even have elevated versions of recipes you already love.
For instance, instead of boxed mac and cheese, learn to make a cashew cream pasta on Fresh Prep, or instead of a carb-heavy takeout burger, become a home chef and master the art of gluten-free, carb conscious and organic burgers on HelloFresh.
To Sharpen Your Culinary Skills
Learning to create new recipes you otherwise may not have experimented with will help to create culinary confidence in the kitchen. From university students who recently moved out of their parent’s home and only know how to make instant noodles (it’s okay, we’ve all been there) to even the finest of home cooks, there is always room to grow your culinary skills.
Discovering new food options and amping up your skills in the kitchen, are one of my favorite features of meal kit services.
To Help With Dietary Restrictions
Nowadays there are so many meal kits to choose from that no matter your dietary preference, there’s a meal kit service for you. Whether you have fitness or weight loss goals, allergies, or simply want to follow a certain lifestyle, many meal kit services now have recipe cards with various special diets to choose from.
Meal planning with kits allows you to effortlessly track calories per serving with easy-to-follow recipes and portion sizes. What we’re saying is, there’s a meal kit for everyone!
Who Are Meal Kits Good For?
Parents
Being a parent is a full-time job as it is, without having to worry about cooking for everyone on top of it. Save time cooking with easy meals via a weekly order from whatever your preferred choice for the best meal kit is. Or, sorry, let’s be honest, wherever your kids think the best meal kit service is.
After all, peace of mind is one service you can’t put a price on.
Busy Professionals
The last thing busy professionals want to do when waking up at 6 am is figure out what to pack for lunch. With easy-to-use meal kits, have your weekly lunches prepped and in the fridge so you can focus on important things, like how you’re going to ask your boss for time off work for that last-minute trip your friends pressured you into booking.
Amateur Chefs
We all know someone whose food we fear every time they invite us over. Hey, we can’t all be Gordon Ramsey. Meal kits make a great gift for that someone in your life who needs a little hint to stop burning the grilled cheese every time they offer to make food.
With pre-portioned ingredients and step-by-step instructions, what can go wrong? Anyone can become a home chef with meal kits.
Health Fanatics
Some meal kit services focus on plant-based, vegetable-rich meals, while other meal kits focus on low-carb or gluten-free options. You can choose from many different healthy options to find the best meal kit for your lifestyle.
Meal Preppers
Choose how many meals and how many portions you want when you order meal kit delivery.
Additionally, meal kits allow you to easily see the nutrition facts of each recipe you order. This takes the guesswork out of meal prep, and with all the options out there, you can easily cater it to a meal plan that fits your goals and lifestyle.
Pros and Cons of Meal Kits:
Meal Kit Pros
- Less food waste
- Saves money and time
- Discover new food and recipes each week
- Cancel anytime
Meal Kit Cons
- Shipping is not always free
- Some meal kits take longer to make than expected
- Some meal kits have poor customer service
To save you time and energy, we review US and Canadian meal kits to prevent you from making the same mistakes we did when we first got into them.
Read More: Meal Kit Reviews
Our Verdict
Meal kit services help you save time and money while allowing you to get outside of your comfort zone in the kitchen. They’re a great alternative to eating out, making them perfect for anyone. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for one today!
