What types of meal delivery services are there?

Meal delivery services are changing the way Americans think about dinner. Meal planning can be stressful and for people who don’t cook as often, difficult. Meal delivery services offer meal kits that you can order and arrange around your busy schedule. In addition to helping you plan your meals, meal delivery services are incredibly convenient. Instead of creating a shopping list, going to the grocery store and hauling your groceries home, meal kits are delivered to your door. Unlike ordering from a restaurant, these kits allow you to control all of the foods you’re eating. Meaning, you know each and every individual thing that goes into a meal. That gives you greater control over your diet and in turn your health. In addition to convenience, a home cooked meal is a great way to bond with your family. Getting dinner on the table has never been easier. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of meal delivery services.

• Chef Driven Meal Delivery Services

The demand for meal delivery services has exploded. Many of these companies are trying to stand out from the crowded field by partnering with chefs. These partnerships result in high quality, good tasting meals that are chef certified. With an experienced and often famed chef overseeing the menu (Sometimes), you can get a taste of their cooking style in your very own home. For instance, Martha Stewart has partnered with Marley Spoon. Stewart brings with her a catalogue of thousands of recipes that showcase her simple yet delicious style. Other well-known chefs and respected restaurant industry veterans are teaming with certain meal delivery services to give them an edge. At the end of the day, people are only going to keep purchasing the meals if they’re delicious.

• Diet Driven Meal Delivery Services

With almost all meal delivery services you’ll notice that they take care to cater to all sorts of different diets. You’ll find vegetarian, vegan, paleo, gluten-free and many more options. In addition to these diets, many meal delivery services are putting an emphasis on healthy eating and improving diet and food choices. Aside from having these options, which are great, some meal delivery service are taking it to the next step. For instance, HungryRoot is a vegan meal delivery service. They only send plant-based foods to their customers. This model is true for other diets and is great for people who strictly adhere to them. You might think that these meal delivery services are “niche” but they’re growing quickly and forcing some of the bigger brands to offer even more diet-friendly options to compete.

• Sustainability Driven Meal Delivery Services

Most meal delivery services package the meals and deliver them to you in recyclable materials. This is a great trend that almost all meal delivery services have adopted. However, some meal delivery services are thinking about sustainability and being more eco-friendly. Companies like SunBasket offer meals that are based on a farm-to-table model. SunBasket has partnered with local farmers and procurement experts to source the freshest, most sustainable ingredients from all over California. The idea behind this is to do a better job at sourcing produce than the typical grocery store. So much food is wasted by grocery stores and consumers every year. If you have perfectly portioned ingredients and you know where they were grown/harvested, you have a pretty good idea about what type of product you’re getting and you won’t be throwing away any excess food. A lot of the ingredients used by these sustainable meal delivery services are organic. The meat you receive, in most cases, will be ethically raised and slaughtered. These models are doing are really great job of balancing cost and delivering incredible produce by keeping the inventory tight. If you’d like to “go green” and start eating better and doing less damage to the earth, you might consider one of the meal delivery services that focuses on sustainability.

There are all sorts of different meal delivery services sending out their meal kits daily. You get to choose what is most important to you. Is it incredible food? Is it a healthier diet? Is it environmentally conscious eating? You’ll find that many of these meal kit services are going to check off more than one box. These meal delivery kits are evolving every day to meet demand and the competition between them is great for you.