Are meal kits for me? Which food subscription service should I choose?
Do you hate meal planning and grocery shopping?
Do you want restaurant-quality food but sick and tired of the surrounding restaurants?
Would you like to find a good combination of TASTY and HEALTHY?
Finally, do you hate the world’s most annoying question – “what’s for dinner”?
With meal kits…
You don’t need to plan your meals or go to the supermarket to buy groceries if you don’t want to. All you need to do is select the meal plan that you and your loved ones would like to have for dinner or lunch, and all the ingredients and the recipes will be sent to your door as a meal kit (also known in Canada as food subscription boxes).
Such meal kits are bespoke to your preferences and have been prepared with the guidance of professionals in the field, to make sure they are nutritionally balanced while staying flavourful.
All you need to do is cook it, and guess what – you don’t need to be a professional chef to cook delicious and nutritious food anymore. Every meal kit includes a recipe with all the step-by-step cooking instructions for the meal you have selected and all the ingredients needed, except for common kitchen items like oil, salt, and sugar. Usually, all the ingredients come accurately pre-measured according to the recipe for as many serving as you ordered.
Each ingredient is carefully packaged to avoid mixing and bacteria contamination, and there are extra precautionary measures taken currently due to Covid-19 restrictions. The packaging is also more environment-friendly than most options out there.
Meal Kits Canada: Unlock the Power of Meal Kits
We are Canada’s most comprehensive meal kit review site. We have covered more than 15 meal kits companies in Canada to date (including the popular U.S. ones which have yet to even enter the Canadian market).
If you are eager to try out meal kits, then you should know that Hello Fresh is our #1 rated company (with more than 90% customer satisfaction as well). They deliver all over Canada, so there is a great chance that this meal kit is available in your area.
They also have a great newcomers’ promotion available: 20 free meals off your first boxes from HelloFresh!
What is in the meal kit?
Please watch our photos and videos below to see what exactly comes in a meal kit and what it looks like:
As you can see, your meals for the week will arrive in an insulated box that keeps your meats cool with ice packs, and the rest of your meal comes in self-contained bags. Simply store in your fridge, and when suppertime arrives, pluck out the bag, and get cooking!
The boxes are engineered to keep everything cool, no matter how hot it is outside. When we first started ordering Hello Fresh, we tested the claims by leaving the box outside in 32 °C heat for 8+ hours. The ice packs were still more than 50% frozen when we opened the box, and consequently, the meat was still quite chilled, and the produce was cool and crisp.
The health advantages of a meal kit
When you cook your favorite meals at home, do you count all proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that come with each serving? Do you know how many calories each meal contains? Do you know the right serving size? We don’t know either!
In meal kits, all the servings are pre-measured, and all the nutritional facts and calorie counts are available either immediately or upon request. This can help you keep your weight under control, thus improving your overall health.
In case you prefer a plant-based diet, which is found to be very beneficial for your health, many meal kit companies offer vegetarian meals or even whole vegetarian plans that consist of plant-based meals only.
There is no need to mention that ingredients come to you super-fresh in an insulated box. It is highly recommended to refrigerate the meal kits as soon as you receive them to avoid food spoilage.
Read more about the benefits of fresh food vs canned and frozen food here.
Go green with meal kits
Switching from regular grocery shopping to meal kits might not only make you healthier, but it might also help you go greener. First, with fewer trips to the grocery store, you can save gas and reduce air pollution. Second, buying fewer groceries means less food waste.
One minor concern that environment-friendly people might have with meal kit companies is that they use too much packaging. However, the companies respond that they use as many recyclable materials as possible and encourage their customers to recycle packaging and freeze packs. You can find more information on why meal kits create less waste and emissions here.
Top 2 Best Companies December, 19th, 2020
Below is our editorial selection of the best meal kit companies in Canada. Luckily, every meal kit company in Canada offers bonuses and promotions for new and current customers and these are listed below as well.
This is a great chance to see what the buzz is about. There is no limit to how many you can try, and the cancellation process is always easy and painless.
Comparing the Cost of Meal Kits in Canada to Grocery Shopping and Restaurant Food
How much do you usually spend on groceries?
How much do you eat out, get delivery, or order takeout?
How much food do you usually out?
After allowing for these variables, let’s take a look at the average numbers involved when looking at the true cost of meal kits for the average Canadian.
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Sylvain Charlebois is a professor at Dalhousie University. She recently released a study that claimed the average Canadian household spends roughly $250 a week on groceries. If we assume that $150 of that $250 is spent on supper, and we also take into account that the average Canadian throws out 170 pounds of food per year, the supper cost would rise $40 per week overall (once thrown out food is taken into consideration).
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For a two-person household, the expense would obviously rise even less. Likely an additional $30 per week to your average grocery budget.
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You have to factor in the money that you might save on restaurant food. Canadians have increased spending at restaurants by nearly $700 since 2010 alone! For young Canadians, the numbers skew even higher, with over 70 percent of under-40 Canucks eating at least one restaurant meal per week (and citing time/convenience as the main factor in that decision).
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If the average under-40 Canadian cuts their restaurant meal spending (whether it’s dine-in, delivery, or takeout) in half by using meal kits, that’s a savings of $30 per week and allows you to break even on the difference between meal kits and groceries.
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A few bucks each week is not much, but it’s definitely a price many are willing to pay for all the advantages discussed above. Could you save money by looking at recipes and then going out and buying recipe items in bulk – while meal planning two weeks ahead? Yes, you could – there are a lot of busy people who are willing to pay an extra few bucks a meal in order to not have to think about it until 30 min before it’s on the table – but also want to eat fresh, healthy creations and not have to rely on fatty restaurant food to conquer the dinner time mountain.
Our mission
MealKitsCanada.ca is a personalized Canadian meal kit review and comparison platform that helps you discover your next favorite meal kit delivery company in just a few clicks.
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If you’ve tried one of Canada’s meal kit delivery services, we’d love to hear from you! Send us your meal kit review and share your thoughts. Our “best meal kit in Canada” rating is dynamic, and we continue to record data and opinions from coast-to-coast to enhance the quality and depth of MealKitsCanada.
Do not use nutritional information and recommendations on this website if you suffer from a serious condition. Some of the links on this website are referral links. We get paid to refer clients to certain companies (but our rating is ours, and you cannot pay to be listed higher).