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A meal delivery service offers fresh, wholesome produce prepared, packaged and delivered to your door in ready-made meal form. Some services deliver their meals fresh, some are frozen. It’s important to check how the meals are chilled before you decide to subscribe. We have done the hard work for you and will provide these details in the table below.
Customers sign up to the service online, pick their plan and have a specific number of meals delivered to their door on a weekly basis. These pre-proportioned meals come in plastic containers labelled with nutritional information.
Youfoodz, Gourmet Dinner Service and Dinner Ladies offer fully prepared meals. Customers can choose from their dedicated meal lists before ordering. The meals are then delivered in insulated cool boxes on a specified date.
Meal kit delivery services, or food boxes, provide all the ingredients for each meal along with menus for the week, meal cards and cooking instructions. These services sometimes offer healthy eating guides and diet plans that are devised for your personally.
The number of meal kit delivery options is steadily increasing to meet the growing demand of busy people who don’t want to forgo a healthy, well-balanced diet of home-cooked food.
Companies like HelloFresh, Marley Spoon and The Cook’s Grocer offer a variety of subscription and pay-as-you-go food box services, which deliver meal kits with all the ingredients you’ll need. Meal cards show how each meal needs to be prepared and the cooking time. Many companies try to keep meal prep and cooking within the 30-minute mark.
Meal kits will require you to have some staple ingredients at hand to be able to complete the meal. These include olive oil, salt, sugar and milk. Most of the services will tell you what extras you’ll need when you order or the week before your box arrives. The meal kit should include any extra ingredients you need to make the meal.
When choosing the right option for you, consider the following factors:
Many meal delivery services cater to different dietary requirements. Some are vegan-only, some offer paleo options and others are specifically designed for diabetics. Most companies have vegetarian and gluten-free options. If you have specific requirements or allergies, check with the service before you sign up.
Many of the promotions you'll see are based on a two-person subscription. It's important to check the fine print of each offer to ensure you don't get hit with extra costs when you sign up.
Meal delivery and meal kits services are more expensive than buying your groceries in the supermarket. Before you sign up for a service, compare the costs with your average shopping bill. Keep all the receipts from your shopping for the month and record what you spend on food items separately.
No matter what you buy online, it's important to check terms and conditions. Meal delivery services may have a minimum spend amount or ask that you sign up for at least one month. Some services will allow you to pay as you go. Also remember to check the FAQ of each service for more information, or get in touch with the company directly.
If you receive support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), part of the cost of your meal delivery service could be covered. To qualify, delivered meals must be considered reasonable and necessary in your support plan. The NDIS typically only covers the cost of meal prep and delivery, so you'll likely still have to pay for the cost of the ingredients.
Providers offering NDIS services include:
