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Meal Kits

Meal Kits

Looking to try a Meal Kit? You’ve come to the right place! We have compiled some of Australia’s best meal kits providers and compared services to provide you with the information needed to choose your next meal!

By
Alex Hamlin

Written by

Alex Hamlin
Certified Nutritionist

Alex Joy Nutrition supports busy individuals with health goals, offering holistic nutrition guidance to reduce stress and foster balanced, healthy habits. Specialising in empowering high achievers, Alex emphasises a preventative and management-focused approach to health. As a clinical nutritionist, Alex provides individuals with tools and education for taking control of their health. She advocates for optimal nutrition as the cornerstone of wellness, employing a food-first approach complemented by holistic treatments. With evidence-based practices, Alex offers personalised guidance to help individuals reach their health goals, prioritising health at the forefront. In health content creation, Alex delivers concise, informative, and engaging material rooted in evidence-based practices, educating, inspiring and guiding others on their wellness journey.

Updated November 2, 2024
Fact checked Fully qualified and expert nutritionists have reviewed and checked this content to ensure it is as accurate as possible at the time of writing.
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How do meal kits work?

Meal kits are a delivery service created to inspire and provide convenience to consumers with arrays of recipes the customer can choose and cook at home with all ingredients pre-proportioned (besides pantry staples i.e. oil, eggs etc) and ready to cook at home!

Meal kits were created to take the stress and time out of shopping for ingredients, sourcing a recipe, measuring portions and eliminating unnecessary waste. A meal kit takes care of all the dreaded steps often associated with cooking and leaves the consumer to enjoy the fun parts of cooking – choosing recipes, how many meals they require and of course cooking! 

Typically, consumers will choose how many people they wish to feed, recipes will show matches for the person count selected and how many meals weekly they would like to receive in their order. There usually are options to tailor generic preferences such as a vegetarian box or meat and vegetables – individual dietary requirements at this stage aren’t commonly catered to. Consumers from there can choose the recipes they wish to cook for the week ahead. The meal kits are delivered straight to your door with all the pre-portioned ingredients and recipe instructions! It is worth noting typically pantry staples such as milk, eggs, oil aren’t included – consumers will be instructed if there is anything required but not included in the meal kits.

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What is the best meal kit delivery service in Australia?

Vegan

Meal kits are only getting more and more popular! The providers listed above are some of the more popular on the Australian market. What makes a meal kit the ‘best’ we consider the provider ticking the box for consumers wants, such as: a variety of recipes, regularly updated recipe options, competitive pricing, bang for buck, high quality ingredients, minimal to no waste, delivery options and of course – meals that taste delicious! 

With all the above said  HelloFresh is a household name for a reason, they are one of the original meal kits providers to hit the market and have since maintained popularity and preference in a lot of Australian homes. They often have deals and discounts for first-time triers which allows you to try before you buy, or receive meals at a seriously tempting discounted rate!

Are meal kits healthy?

Not always! Everyone’s health looks different, it’s important to understand what is healthy for you and your meal choices before labelling a product under the umbrella term healthy. 

Often people associate pre-prepared meals or meal kits as healthy as a lot of the time they can be linked to a goal-orientated dietary outcome such as weight loss or muscle building – this doesn’t always make a meal ‘healthy’. 

Before committing to a meal kit check the ingredient list and nutritional breakdown to ensure they meet your individual needs. Check out the below for Key factors and pro’s and con’s when comparing meal kit companies.

If you are interested in learning how to correctly identify individual ingredients in your meal kits, read our “How to read a food label in Australia” guide. 

Meal kit

Are meal kits worth it?

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Many positives come with a meal kit service from the obvious time saving and convenience leaving Australians to focus on other life priorities – they are most popular for the associated waste reduction. As meals are pre-portioned and packaged using minimal packets and eco-friendly wrapping materials this stops consumers from buying bulk ingredients and not utilising ingredients in their entity, forcing them to tuck away half-used packets of food potentially not seeing the light of the day again!   

And yes, it is time-saving. Having a pre-ordered weekly array of meals takes the stress out of thinking about what to make for dinners, but it also keeps mealtimes exciting giving consumers the ability to order new meals or cuisines that they haven’t made before. We’ve all been there when you have eaten the same dinner for weeks and need refreshing!

 

Most popular meal kit delivery in NSW

HelloFresh

HelloFresh offers a range of regularly updated delicious recipes with an option for everyone. Their Meat & Veggies Plan is the most popular plan, however they also offer a vegetarian range which can also be home-tailored to create vegan options. They offer delivery Australia wide, and often have a range of discounts and offers – staying competitive with other providers online!

hello-fresh-food
Check out Hello Fresh!

Most popular meal kit delivery in VIC

Every Plate

EveryPlate offers meal kits focusing on simple recipes with big flavours! They currently consider themselves to be Australia’s cheapest meal kit with meals starting as low as under $5. 

Every Plate gluten free meal kits

Most popular meal kit delivery in QLD

Dinnerly

Dinnerly is popular for a reason! They are best known for their affordable meal kits, with wide delivery ranges. Each meal is focused on feeding more for less, utilising fewer ingredients, less paper and minimal packaging. Dinnerly offers two plan types – a two-person box or a family box.

Vegan Meal Kit
Check out Dinnerly!

Most popular meal kit delivery in other states

Marley Spoon

Marley Spoon offer delivery to most areas in Australia including NSW, VIC, ACT, QLD, SA, TAS. They focus on customer convenience and creating inspiration around meal time! All ingredients are locally sourced, pre-portioned and are chosen to eliminate waste around meal preparation. They currently offer a 2-person and 4-person meal kit box!

 

marley-spoon-1
Check out Marley Spoon!

What are the Pros & Cons of meal kit delivery services?

low carb meals pros and cons

Meal Kit Pros

  • Time-saving - Our favourite pro! With most of the work done for you from grocery shopping, finding a recipe and planning you can focus on the more important things!
  • Takes the stress out of meals - Planning meals for the week can be stressful and often you can feel like you keep turning back to old favorites like spaghetti bolognaise. Choosing a meal kit to freshen up meal times can keep dinner excited, all whilst getting the family involved! Have your family pick out their favourite meal for the week ahead.
  • Ingredients are all pre-portioned - Pre-portioned ingredients save the need for consumers to buy more of an ingredient than what they really would use or need. This reduces waste and can be cost-saving.
  • Can be cost effective - As meals are prepared in bulk by providers, this allows for meals to be marked at competitive prices which can be a huge saving bonus for consumers. With meal kits becoming more and more competitive market prices are often promotionally discounted or have referral incentives which makes the prices even lower. Big win for consumers looking to cut costs around meal times!
  • Can reduce household waste - The lowered waste can be associated with the pre-portioned amounts of ingredients which not only prevent consumers from having to buy ‘whole’ quantities of ingredients, but packaging and wrapping are commonly eco-friendly and eliminate harmful plastics.

Meal Kit Cons

  • Doesn’t necessarily educate consumers around food choices - A negative to draw from meal kits is that although it does get consumers cooking meals, it doesn’t actively educate consumers on how to make healthy choices. Most meal kits are standard meals and don’t cater to a health goal, this means consumers need to be savvy around comparing choices instead of applying blind trust.
  • Not meal kits for singles - Unfortunately there aren’t any meal kits for one on the market yet, most boxes include a 2-person or a 4-person option.
  • Not many options available for dietary requirements or preferences - Meal kit options are mostly generic suiting the wider majority of the population. This means at this stage, meal kit companies don’t usually cater to individual requirements such as allergies, dietary restrictions etc.
  • Delivery may be restrictive due to freshness and sourcing of ingredients - If you live in rural areas or even just outside of metro areas your delivery likelihood may decrease

Key factors when comparing meal kit companies?

When choosing the right option for you, consider the following factors:

Price Per Meal, Per Week

Compare meal kits by cost per serving or per meal! It’s also important to look at the discounted rates that are used to incentivise buying more for less. Ordering multiple meals for the week ahead can be more cost-effective in comparison to just 1-2 dinners a week.  

Sustainability & Environmental Efforts

Compare providers on their efforts in lowering their environmental impacts and making more eco-friendly choices. Most companies will highlight their packaging standards and environmental contributions on their website as it is a huge influence on consumer choices.

Freshness & Quality

Compare providers on the quality and where ingredients are sourced from. There are many providers prioritising sourcing high quality ingredients from local Aussie suppliers and consumers are demanding higher-quality products. There are also more providers leaning towards free-range products through meal kits. 

Meal Customisation

At this stage there aren’t many providers who offer ‘customisation’ or tailoring of meal kits i.e. dietary restrictions, allergies etc.

There are plenty of options around vegetarian boxes, however, specific tailoring isn’t feasible when the production of meal kits are done in bulk to reduce costs.

Meal Kit Delivery FAQs

Unfortunately, a lot of companies don’t cater to specific requirements i.e. nut allergies, shellfish allergies, coeliac, pescatarian diets, low fodmap diets etc. 


As meal kits are prepared and portioned using bulk ingredients and set menus meeting individual dietary needs can be out of reach. Especially when considering allergies, preparing meals in the same facility would be too much of a risk to ensure safety and quality assurance.

Everyplate proudly claims to be the most affordable meal kit in Australia starting from as little as $2.39 per plate, followed by Dinnerly starting from $4.85 per serve.

At this stage, there isn’t a huge variety of vegan meal-kit markets. Marley Spoon offers some vegan options throughout their menu, however, not a huge variety.

Having a meal kit is a great way to reduce food waste, as everything is prepared and specific to portion control,  typically avoiding food waste.

Most meal kit providers have made huge efforts to create environmentally conscious steps in reducing waste. According to a University of Michigan Study, Hellofresh’s carbon footprint is 25% lower than meals bought from the grocery store. This can be associated with an efficient supply chain and distribution which in turn lowers greenhouse gas emissions.

At this stage there aren’t any meal kits for one, only a 2-person meal kit offering can be found on the market.

They have the potential to create a lower costing grocery shop! There are still some essentials that are needed from the grocery store such as pantry staples that aren’t included in meal kits such as oil, eggs, butter etc. They also often don’t cater for snacks which you may need to stock up on in your standard grocery shop.

It is unlikely ingredients are frozen in meal kits as most providers pride themselves on using fresh high-quality ingredients. However, this will depend on the provider and you will need to check with the company prior to ordering if this is something you want to avoid.

Pepperleaf has a family box for 4-6 people, 2-5 meals per week.

Every plate has a family box for 4-6 people, 3-6 meals per week.

Not all meal kits come gluten-free you will need to check if the provider offers gluten-free meal alternatives. Hellofresh offers naturally gluten free meal options on their menus which lets consumers choose recipes for the week ahead! 

Hellofresh offers recipes on their weekly menu for consumers to choose a low carb meal from their regularly updated menu. The reduced carb meals will say under 30g carbs and customers can add this to their weekly planned meals. 

Yes! There are many kid-friendly meal options available among meal kit providers, making meal kits the perfect family friendly activity to include the kids in the process! Have kids pick their favourite meal to cook for the week!  Hellofresh have an array of children-friendly recipes that are regularly updated keeping the kids excited each week for new flavours!

Everyone’s weight loss journey is different, and you will need to consider your own needs before purchasing a meal kit. We recommend speaking with your trusted health professional before buying a low-calorie meal kit. 

Hellofresh does offer recipes that are under 650kcal, these can be ordered within the weekly rotating meals.

Search and compare wellness and health delivery services in Australia including meal kits, ready to eat meal delivery, vitamin subscriptions and much more at Wellhub. All content and information on this site is provided by qualified Australian nutritionists to ensure accurate representation of all products reviewed. Learn more about our expert team here.