Fresh Prep Review

Written by: Natalia S

 I’m a Vancouver-based mom and writer who loves to cook. Hope you enjoy!

Fresh Prep is a Canadian meal kit service that emphasizes fresh ingredients, sustainability, and convenience. With pre-chopped ingredients and quick recipes, they make home-cooked meals easy and waste-free.

Founded in 2015, Fresh Prep’s philosophy is all about nourishing your body with high-quality ingredients, with a big focus on environmental-friendliness and sustainability. They offer a wide variety of ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat meals to choose from each week (35+ items), each developed and vetted by professional chefs and nutritionists.

Fresh Prep acquired Cook It in 2024 to help expand its service across Canada.

But what else sets Fresh Prep apart from other meal kits? Do the meals actually taste as good as they say? How do they fulfill their sustainability promise? I gave Fresh Prep a try and have all my honest answers below:

Fresh Prep Pricing and Delivery

Depending on which plan you choose, the price per plate will fluctuate slightly. Pricing starts from $11.30 per serving. You’ll always get free delivery, and Fresh Prep will pick up your cooler bag and Zero Waste Kits on your next delivery (you can also schedule a free pickup). Deliveries run Saturday through Wednesday, and you’ll get a text with your delivery window (exact times vary by area).

Fresh Prep Meal Kit Options

You have 2 choices when selecting a plan: 2-Person Meals (2 servings per recipe) or a Family Plan (4 servings per recipe). Within each plan, you can choose how many recipes you want, from 2 to 5. In your account settings, you can further customize your plan according to dietary and taste preferences.

The 2-Person Meal plan can also be used if you’re a single individual—you’ll just end up with 2 servings per recipe, which isn’t a bad deal since the meals are so delicious you’ll be wanting seconds anyway.

You now get 35+ choices each week. If you don’t like any meal options you can easily skip the week.

You also get free delivery every week which is a nice bonus, and free pick up with their Zero Waste Kits (more on this below).

After you order, the meals come in a fabric reusable cooler bag and include pre-portioned ingredients for the recipes you selected. This was a pleasant surprise, as most other meal kits come packed in cardboard boxes. All the ingredients are separately packed, measured, and labeled, either in a Zero Waste Kit (see below) or in a paper bag. Along with the ingredients, there are recipe cards, with easy-to-follow, step-by-step directions. The recipes even include labeled pictures of all the ingredients, as well as nutritional information.

On top of the food, you can also order items from their Add-ons menu. These include things like healthy snacks and sweets, proteins, groceries, and ready-to-eat meals for days you’re really pressed for time. Their Add-ons follow the same principles of high-quality, sustainably-sourced, additive-free ingredients.

I didn’t try their ready-to-eat meals but the options looked delicious. I’m sure it would be useful for those who really don’t like to cook or in weeks when time is tighter than usual.

Fresh Prep Menu & Recipes

You’ll get 35+ meal choices every week, and can filter by Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy-Aware, and Gluten-Aware. Recipes are labeled according to difficulty level, time to prepare, and packaging.

For my options, I chose the ricotta ravioli in bolognese sauce and spicy red Thai chicken curry. Unlike many other meal kits that go heavy on the carbs and light on the protein, I found that Fresh Prep’s protein portions were large and well-balanced with the rest of the meal.

Fresh Prep’s spicy red Thai chicken curry

The ricotta bolognese was restaurant-quality, filling, and definitely something I would never cook at home myself. The Thai curry was rich and tasty, and I had to stop myself from eating both servings in one sitting! With both recipes, I had enough food for 2 large portions. Going hungry definitely wasn’t an issue!

Fresh Prep’s ricotta ravioli in bolognese sauce

Dietary Options

Fresh Prep works with nutritionists to develop their meals and accommodate a variety of dietary preferences so if you’ve been having a hard time finding a meal kit service that works with your dietary preferences or restrictions, Fresh Prep does its best to cater to you.

You can filter your weekly menu by dietary preference, or you can tailor your Taste Settings according to vegan or vegetarian, and select specific ingredients you don’t want to include, like meat, lamb, pork, poultry, seafood, gluten, and milk. This way, your weekly plan will only give you options that align with your preferences. All allergen information is included on the recipe cards and online, so you can make choices that are right for you.

Beginner Friendliness

When choosing your recipes, you’ll see labels like Easy, Moderate, and Complex, denoting the recipe’s difficulty level. That said, the recipes are really difficult to mess up, even if you choose a complex one. There are labeled pictures of the ingredients included and step-by-step instructions with directions and timing—so anyone can cook them.

Ingredients are pre-portioned so you don’t have to worry about getting spice measurements wrong, and depending on the ingredient, they’ll come pre-diced, shredded, minced, etc., so you just have to throw it into the pan. For some ingredients that would stay fresher whole, you may have to do a bit of chopping, though, as I did with a couple of vegetables for the Thai curry.

The great thing about Fresh Prep is that recipes have predictable prep times between 2 and 30 minutes. I actually timed myself when cooking and was quite pleased that they did in fact hold true to their promise. Both meals took about 40 minutes including clean-up time when it was all said and done, using only 1 pan and 1 pot each.

Fresh Prep Pricing & Delivery

Depending on which plan you choose, the price per plate will fluctuate slightly. Pricing starts from $11.30 per serving. Now, it must be said that this is definitely on the pricier side when it comes to meal kits; however, one thing to note is that you’ll always get free delivery, and free pick-up of Zero Waste Kits (more below). Deliveries run Saturday through Wednesday, and you’ll get a text with your delivery window (delivery times vary by area). Fresh Prep delivers across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

As well, the food you’ll be consuming is of high quality and sustainably sourced from curated sellers. The higher price also reflects their commitment to delicious meals. Both meals I tried had a healthy portion of protein and were top-notch quality, better than most other meal kits I’ve tried before.

You can choose your meals up to a month in advance. On delivery day, you’ll receive a text alert with your window; I chose Sunday with a 12–5 pm window, and my bag actually arrived closer to 6 pm—which happens sometimes.

Sustainability and Recycling

This is where Fresh Prep shines, and why I don’t mind spending a little extra on their meal kits. Allow me to explain:

Reusable fabric cooler bags
The first thing I noticed when my meal kit arrived was that it came in a reusable fabric cooler bag (similar to those that Uber Eats and SkipTheDishes use), so they got extra points just for that.

Freshprep reusable food bag

Recyclable packaging
My spicy red Thai chicken curry arrived in a paper bag with pre-portioned ingredients in separate little packages. All packaging was recyclable—pretty standard for most meal kit services these days.

Zero Waste Kits
My ricotta ravioli with bolognese sauce arrived in a Zero Waste Kit, which was an absolute dream in terms of sustainability and environmental-friendliness.

Fresh Prep’s Zero Waste Kits portion out ingredients into individual cups that fit into a larger, air-tight container. When the lid is placed on, each cup is sealed, so you don’t have to worry about spillage…and the whole thing fits nicely in the fridge. All you have to do when cooking is remove the lid, align the tray to match up with the ingredient pictures on the recipe card, and start cooking. The cups also double as measuring cups if need be, so you don’t have to dirty up more dishes.

Once you’re done cooking, you simply rinse everything off, put it back in the reusable bag, and Fresh Prep will pick it up with your next delivery. You can also schedule a pick-up at any time. Each Zero Waste Kit prevents about 19 g of single-use plastic compared with standard kits, and seafood options are guided by Ocean Wise recommendations or MSC certification.

Fresh Prep’s sustainable packaging

Recap: Is Fresh Prep Worth It?

Fresh Prep is absolutely worth it. Yes, it’s a little pricier than other meal kits, but the price is reflected in the quality of ingredients, scrumptious recipes, and commitment to the environment. You can easily pause and resume your plan each week, and the free delivery and easy returns for reusable packaging add a delightful layer to their service. With 35+ weekly choices, it’s also easier to find meals you’ll actually look forward to.

Read More About Fresh Prep

• The 9 Best Vegan Meal Kits In Calgary
• Roundup: Best Vegan Meal Kit Companies in Vancouver
• The Best Meal Kit Delivery Services In Vancouver
• The Best Meal Kit Delivery Services In Calgary

Interested in giving Fresh Prep a try? Get 3 free meals with your first order.