The premise of a recurring delivery service is nothing new. One of the earliest delivery services was founded in 1917 as a meat company that quickly began to take mail orders and offer home delivery by 1952. This graduated to monthly description boxes for niche products, such as fashion and wellness, healthy snacks, and dog treats.
The first official meal kit service was launched in 2017 in Sweden. It was called Middagsfrid, and its purpose was to help families enjoy home-cooked dinners without worrying about meal planning or grocery shopping. It was an instant success, and it spread to Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, and Belgium. Today, in Sweden, there are more than ten different meal-kit companies.
Since then, meal kits have continued to rise in popularity because they offer plenty of benefits. These services were developed for customers who want a home-cooked meal without going to the grocery store multiple times each week and spending hours preparing ingredients. They also allow the customer to pick from a set of meals, making it far easier to decide on what’s for dinner.
One of the biggest benefits of meal kit services is that they offer perfect portions. Americans tend to struggle with portion control and how much to serve of each dish. Because meal kit services come prepackaged, they have specific servings inside, and the customer knows exactly how much should go on each plate. These services also offer fresh ingredients, even ones that aren’t in season or easy to find locally. Along with wasting less food, offering healthy options, and cost savings, it is easy to see why busy professionals turn to meal kits for dinner.
Meal kit services are not without their challenges, however. One of the biggest challenges facing meal kit services is shipping logistics. Because these products have to be shipped in refrigerated or frozen temperatures, a cold chain logistics shipping process is required to ensure meal kits get from company to consumer in a safe and timely fashion.
