Why Are Meal Kits So Popular?

Meal kits such as Hello Fresh, Chef’s Plate, Blue Apron, and more are ever-increasing in popularity, especially within the millennial market. Watch as we unpack (lol) if they’re good for you, good for your wallet, and/or good for the planet.

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Script: Holly Conklin
Editor: Reid Valaitis
Animator: Zachary Kastrukoff
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand

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[felixbechtoldt]

I know of many people who started with meal kits and now are doing their own shopping and cooking. That's a good outcome in my book 😉

[skywillow]

great video as always, just want to point out that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is basically pure umami and can be found in tomatoes, cheese, kombu, etc. it got a really bad rap years ago for causing "chinese restaurant syndrome" (not to mention how much that contributed to racism against chinese people), but it's literally just a refined form of the umami that in centuries past was obtained from seaweed, etc., in east asia. it's unfortunate it doesn't have an easier name like salt does (even though technically salt is "sodium chloride" and is similarly processed/refined), but tl;dr please don't lump it in with other ingredients" - it deserves so much better than that!

[jeffersonye]

I personally cannot justify the price. I can easily make meals at 1/3-1/2 the price of what these meal kits charge

[naudjacobvolders]

In The Netherlands you can buy meal kits in supermarkets for 4 people for 5 euros in total. To me it seems way more convenient than ordering one. They also only come in a thin layer of plastic foil and they aren’t cooled.. so… the best of both worlds tbh.

[TheLanges]

We have a zero easy meal kit/grocery service in Texas. It is called Trashless. They pick up all the old containers when they deliver the next bag of meals/groceries. We love it. It tells you what farm all you provide and stuff is from. It really supports local businesses.

[latristessdurera]

Got to be honest, I really enjoy going out and getting groceries. It breaks up the week and gives me something to do outside of working/sleeping and other life stuff.

[IvyandCJsGarden]

I've always wondered about how environmentally friendly meal kits are. Thanks for doing a video on it and I hope more of them can be as sustainable as freshprep!

[cool_labs]

Love this take on meal kits.

Small nitpick though: didn't love the fact that you went the "i cant even pronounce these vs "pronounce-able" foods route when discussing processed commercial food vs eating whole, unprocessed food. It's that kind of thinking thats not too far from the pseudo-scientific "Goop" way of thinking about food.

[icecubeonfire]

We got one of these kits during our 2 week quarantine. We were super sick and stuck inside so it was a good thing to have at least some of the food planned out and brought to us. It also made the job for the people who went grocery shop for us easier as they had less to carry up to our 4floor apartment.

[BillBaran]

I love Hello Fresh and I've been using them for almost 2 years. However I think I'm ready to try a 'next step'. I've saved all the recipe cards and have a pretty big stack. I'm going to try picking out 3 or 4 with similar ingredients and use that to decide what to buy at the grocery. This might be the best of both worlds and help defeat my nemesis that started this journey, wasted food and overly simple, bland recipes.

[clooneytune_]

Oh man... meal kits have saved me from my adhd induced executive dysfunction fuelled food nightmare... I feel exactly the way you explained at the end, they're an amazing tool for learning new things and helping to learn how to meal plan more effectively. I haven't weaned myself off them yet but I'm getting to the point where I'm putting things I've learned from meal kits in to place so that it takes some of the executive function out of meal planning each week! By the end of 2022 I want to love cooking again and I think meal kits are getting me there

[quinn_cooke]

I was absolutely disgusted with the wastage from Hello Fresh when I tried it. Everything is in an individual plastic bag, nothing is recyclable except the box. I also found it a very uninspiring way to cook, they rinse and repeat the same meals every week in different formats. It definitely caters to those who don't know how to or aren't interested in cooking, better than getting takeaways every night i suppose but certainly not for me!

[thecatherd]

Ah, I see Google's on to me with the recommendation, I ordered my first Hello Fresh box literally yesterday. I'm actually a very proficient cook (I trained as a chef) but had to quit because of chronic illness and my relationship with food has just deterioated from there. I SO badly want to get back into cooking, to fix my relationship with food, but I just don't have the mental or physical energy to organise picking recipes, buying my own ingredients, getting it home, prepping it and cooking it. I'm really hoping that meal kits at least give me a gateway to love and appreciate my food again.

[whereivebeenwandering]

I did Hello Fresh for about 3 years and after cooking at home with the recipes they sent, I became a good cook. It taught me how to pace out the preparation and cooking and how to utilize different spices and things to make the food flavorful. I can iron chef a healthy, flavorful meal really easy now. I no longer do the kits because they cost too much and o hate the packaging waste.

[LolaGeek]

I actually love planning and shopping and prepping for meals, but sometimes I do get burnt out (especially during this time where we're eating at home 99.9% of the time and everything is such a hassle), so I have been going through some periods of using meal kits. I like the variety and that they do all the planning and shopping for me, I've learned some new recipes that have gone into our regular rotation, and I feel like it does help with food waste as we're just cooking for 2.

[Belbecat]

I tried it once and I definitely went from "I don't cook anything except for instant noodles" to cooking for myself whenever I can be bothered and I became more willing to try cooking more different things and was less intimidated by spices and sauces etc due to the amount of stuff that turned out amazing from these kits. If I had the money though I would probably subscribe to one again, but the biggest thing that I hate about them is the said waste from the packaging. Definitely like the look of that freshprep one hope it reaches my corner of the woods.

[curiousdoodler]

I really loved a meal kit for exactly what you described. I used it for a year and basically learned how to cook. once I learned what I liked and different ways to cook, I moved to a meal planning app and did my own grocery shopping and prep. now I'm able to do most of my own meal planning and cooking, although I do still reference some of those old meal kit recipes. it is great for training wheels to try to learn how to cook, but you gotta take the training wheels off eventually

[justsofia]

The ad before this video was literally a hello fresh ad lol 😂

[shimshimmash]

I love how the pronounceable food example pic had a pile of what looks like quinoa in the bowl, one of the less pronounceable foods!

[aileen]

I totally agree with your stance. We’ve tried a few different meal kits and have taken a bunch of our favourite meals and put them in our rotation.