Meal Delivery Buyer's Guide

A meal delivery service will allow you to significantly cut down on the amount of time that it takes for you to prepare and enjoy a homemade meal by yourself, with your partner, or with your family. There's no reason that you need to settle for lower-quality meals due to not having the sufficient amount of time necessary to properly prepare them. By design, a meal delivery service functions to provide you with the building blocks and instructions necessary to enjoy tasty meals, all while not investing as much time as you'd otherwise need to get there.

A meal delivery service works by allowing you to choose from a regularly updated menu of meals every time that you go to put your order in. Most often, the total number of entrees that you end up selecting will be dependent on which plan you choose to sign up for from a given meal delivery service. Then, on whatever day you deem most convenient, the box will be delivered to your door.



How Meal Delivery Services Works





Prep

The driving force behind a meal delivery service is to significantly cut down on the amount of time that it takes you to prepare and serve a meal, while still ensuring that you’re actually able to enjoy the meal. Most meals you’ll be able to order from meal delivery service menus will take you about 30 minutes from prep to actual serving time. You’ll also want to factor in a bit of time for the cleanup part of the process. Overall, your best bet is to probably set aside at least an hour of time for the cooking and cleaning that will go into each meal from a meal delivery service.

• DIY: The DIY meal delivery kit option has continued to rise in popularity since the pandemic. A DIY meal delivery kit will most often contain various produce items that can then be used to make meals from simple recipe cards. Or, you can opt for this kit if you just want the fresh produce items as they are. These kits are especially popular amongst people that still love to cook but don’t want to invest the time and energy into planning for a grocery shop outing, and then cooking the actual meal.
• Premade: The pre-made meal delivery kit option means that the meals come pre-cooked, and there will be a minimal amount of prep work to get the meal ready to serve. In addition, many meal delivery companies have invested significant resources in putting together specialized meal plans that account for specific dietary needs, or even aid in weight loss goals.

Whether you decide to try out a DIY meal delivery kit or a premade meal delivery kit first, either way you'll be able to count on max convenience and rest assured that you're not running the risk of consuming less tasty food.

Supplies

Should you decide to try out the heat-and-eat meal delivery kit All that you’ll need to enjoy your first meal will be a microwave for “prep” and utensils. Otherwise, you’ll be best served by ensuring that you have basic spices on hand like red pepper flakes, garlic powder, ground cinnamon, whole nutmeg, cayenne pepper, ground cumin, and onion powder, and then for essential dried herbs you should stock up on dried bay leaves, dried basil and dried oregano. You should also invest in a pot, pan, more than one bowl, and some plates. Outside of that, you should make sure to also have a box of salt, some ground pepper, olive oil, and a few sticks of butter. Additionally, you should stock up on a mixing spoon, a large cutting board, and two essential knives: the chef’s knife and a paring knife. You could also invest in some scissors and a can opener, which both play important roles as additional, frequently used kitchen accessories.

Time

Most often your meal delivery kit will include easy-to-follow and informative recipe cards that'll detail what ingredients, supplies, and how long you can expect the prep process to take. Certain meal delivery services will also include 15-minute meals as well as meals that come oven-ready.

Meals

Most meal delivery companies will offer you the option to choose from breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal choices. Additionally, some meal delivery companies will offer you snack and dessert choices. It's also important to note that meal delivery companies that provide DIY meals, most often only offer dinner options. Whereas, pre-made meals will fall across the breakfast, lunch, and dinner categories. This is due to the fact that preparation put into making dinner commonly consumes more time than breakfast or lunch. There are also plenty of meal delivery companies that offer you both DIY and pre-made meal options. It'll largely come down to how much time you want to invest in each of your meals. 





Plan Options





Serving Options

A meal delivery kit can accommodate anywhere between 1-4 people per meal kit, and the number of recipes per week will most often fall between 2-5 recipes. This number will ultimately depend on which plan you decide is best when it comes to catering to your needs. 

Menu

Meal delivery services nowadays offer extensive options when it comes to what specific meals you decide are most desirable on a given week. You'll also be able to enjoy regularly updated meal options, as meal delivery services make sure to update their menus on a weekly basis. 

Diets

By using a meal delivery service you'll be able to enjoy a tailored meal plan that could include keto, paleo, vegetarian, vegan, and pescetarian diet variety options as well as medically necessary meal options that are specifically put together to account for anyone who is diabetic, carb-conscious, gluten, soy, dairy, and/or nut-free. There are also numerous meal delivery services that offer meal options to help anyone who is interested in losing weight. 

Meal delivery services like Freshly deliver all-natural, fully prepared meals that are made in gluten and peanut-free facilities, This preparation process ensures that none of the meals are cross-contaminated. Your best bet when it comes to identifying viable allergy-friendly meal delivery service options is to seek out the meal delivery service's FAQ page, and from there determine what the meals are dedicated free from. One meal delivery service might offer free-from options like gluten, peanut, and tree nut, while another meal delivery service might offer free-from options like peanut, soy, gluten, milk, and corn. It's all a matter of finding a meal delivery service that covers all your allergy needs. 



Logistics





Plans

Meal delivery companies make a point of ensuring that both your sign-up and cancellation processes is as easy as possible. When it comes to signing up for a meal delivery service, you'll be prompted to provide your credit card information. Most meal delivery companies accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, and PayPal as acceptable forms of payment. Additionally, you'll likely be given the option to receive your orders weekly, biweekly, or monthly. You can also easily adjust your subscription frequency by simply visiting your Account page, and clicking through to the Account Settings page. You should note that if you change your subscription frequency, the new delivery date that you've selected will likely shift to two to four weeks out from your original delivery day. Lastly, if you decide to cancel your subscription with a meal delivery service, you'll often be prompted to provide your reason for canceling your subscription, and you'll need to make sure that your cancellation is complete by reaching the cancellation confirmation screen. Most meal delivery companies will make it so that you can easily reactivate your subscription by logging back in, and clicking "reactivate."

Pricing

Each meal from a meal delivery service is priced depending on how many ingredients, the size, the amount of protein, and the market rate. You can expect a higher price point for more specialized meal options like gluten-free and vegan meals. You should also remember that a serving is different from a meal. For instance, for meals that are priced per serving, and each meal serves three people, you'll need to multiply that price by three per meal. Before you ultimately decide to try out a meal delivery service, you should make sure that you figure out what your budget is, assess how much money you've previously been spending on groceries and meals out, and determine whether a meal delivery service is comparable or an improvement as an alternative option. Most often, meal delivery services are specifically designed to save you money, while affording you the ability to enjoy fresh ingredients in homemade meals. 

Shipping

Once you schedule your meals for a given week, you’ll receive a notification via email or on the meal delivery service’s app that will tell you when your meals are set to arrive. Most often, your ingredients will be packed at the closest possible distribution center and then placed into the refrigerated boxes. From there, UPS will deliver the boxes right to your door. You can either set up your morning/afternoon/evening such that you’re able to be around for delivery, or you can rest assured that the food will be kept cool and sealed up in the refrigerated box until you’re able to pick it up. Many meal delivery services will also work to use recyclable materials in their actual packaging.

Canceling

Meal delivery companies work to make the cancellation process as easy as possible for you. Most often, if you’d like to cancel, you simply visit the meal delivery company’s website, click through their “Settings” section, identify the “Cancel Subscription” link (oftentimes located above or in “Account Details”), and then you’ll usually be prompted to answer a question or two about why you’re canceling before you’ve actually canceled. You should also make sure to cancel your subscription before the meal delivery company’s specified deadline if you don’t want a delivery for the upcoming week.

**IMAGE HERE - possibly generic for all verticals**

FAQS



Why is the email sign-up necessary?

Numerous meal delivery sites have established reputations for their quick email address grab whenever a consumer signs up to assess a meal plan. Once you enter your email address and proceed to the menu options, you’ll note that coupons and daily deals begin to add up in your inbox. These coupons and discounts that are offered for introductory purposes are really helpful when it comes to saving money on meal plans at the onset of signing up for a meal delivery service, and especially when you’re unsure whether the meal delivery service is going to be a good fit for you.

What if I don't like the weekly menus?

Most meal delivery services make it a point to provide you with easy cancellation and simple scheduling options if it’s decided that the particular meal delivery service isn’t a good fit for what you need. Additionally, you’ll oftentimes have the option to easily customize your weekly meal options so that you’re able to experiment with different meals when you see fit.

What payment options will a meal delivery service take?

At this point, the main meal delivery services will usually only accept standard payment options that include credit cards, Apple Pay, and gift cards. Some meal delivery services will also offer special referral codes to new members who can then share those with friends and family for discounted rates.

What's the best meal delivery service for families with young children?

When it comes to identifying the best possible meal delivery service option for your family if you have young kids, you’ll want to keep an eye out for meal delivery services that offer meal plans that account for dietary restrictions (for instance, if your kid has a food allergy), the frequency that the meals are delivered, the price point, and then the actual prep time for each meal. This is especially crucial if you and your family are juggling busy schedules during the week, and need to be proactive with not spending too much time preparing the actual meals.



ABOUT BUYER'S GUIDE



Navigating the many choices for every consumer purchase can be challenging. Our team spends hours doing research, combing through forums, and reading consumer reviews on even the most basic of household items, and we summarize that information in clear, precise comparisons.

Join the millions that have trusted BuyersGuide.org to help them make smarter buying decisions. We help our readers spend their money wisely and find the right product to suit their specific needs. Our independent expert reviews and data-driven shopping recommendations empower you find the mattress that's right for you.

We leverage user data to understand decision-making and put the best products in front of each user. We tailor our comparisons to what matters to our user's needs, specific or broad. We keep our content up to date, we are constantly looking for new merchants and products to compare, and we are quick to remove any that are outdated or no longer meeting our standards.

Our rankings change day-to-day based on our proprietary algorithms that crunch data to identify top-performing products and tailor recommendations to exactly what our readers are looking for.