The 5 Best Meal Delivery Services in 2024, Tested and Dietitian…
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Our team thoroughly researches and evaluates the recommendations we make on our site. To establish that the product manufacturers addressed safety and efficacy standards, we:We tested over 30 of the most popular meal delivery services on the market. See which ones made our list as the best meal delivery services to subscribe to.
Share on Pinterest Photo by Kelli McGraneA quick look at the best meal delivery services
Finding the time to shop for ingredients, plan meals, and cook sometimes just isn’t possible for people leading busy lives working, caring for a family, or running a household.
There are a several meal delivery services that can help make meal prep easier. However, they differ in meal types, suitability for various diets, quality of ingredients, variety of flavors, and cost.
Healthline editors and registered dietitians tried 32 of the most popular meal prep companies to see which ones could fit busier lifestyles.
Whether you’re looking for meal kits you cook yourself or fully prepared meals that are ready to heat and eat, keep reading to see our picks of the five best meal delivery services, as well as our list of other services that just narrowly missed the cut.
Related: Best healthy meal delivery services
Disclaimer: All the services tested below were tried by Healthline writers or editors who initially received the meals for free. All opinions are our own.
Healthline’s picks for the best meal delivery services
Best overall
Blue Apron
Why we love it: Blue Apron provides consistently high quality meals that can help you build confidence in the kitchen while enjoying more nutritious, home-cooked meals, earning it our choice as the best overall meal delivery service.
While there aren’t as many meals to choose from each week, we still found that the service does a good job of providing a wide variety of ingredients and flavor profiles to keep your tastebuds happy. We also liked that there’s at least one oven-ready meal offered each week.
How it works: Blue Apron delivers meals weekly, with options for two or four servings per meal and two to five meals per week. The service preselects meals for you based on your diet preferences. However, you can easily change your order by swapping one (or all) of the preselected meals for any of the 15+ recipes offered that week.
Tester’s takeaway: According to registered dietitian and expert tester Kelli McGrane, after trying more than 25 meal delivery services over the years, Blue Apron is the one that she keeps coming back to thanks to its creative flavors and high quality ingredients — hello, fresh pasta and pizza dough!
As a working mom with two young kids, McGrane also appreciated that the recipes “came with easy-to-follow recipe cards and didn’t require quite as much multitasking as some of the other services I tried.”
Read our full review of Blue Apron.
Our score breakdownSign-up, delivery, and cancellation processes5Meal variety4Nutrition5Sustainability4.5Ingredient quality5Ease of preparation5Taste5Affordability4Pros & cons
Product details
Best prepared meal delivery
Factor
$130 Off first 6 boxes with code HEALTHLINE130N
GET STARTED WITH FACTOR4.3out of 5healthline scoreHealthline's reviewWhy we love it: Factor, formerly known as Factor 75, is one of the best meal prep companies, offering chef-created, dietitian-approved, fully prepared meals that reheat well, are nutritionally balanced, and are satisfying to eat.
Factor is our highest-scoring prepared meal delivery service, earning top marks for nutrition quality, ingredient quality, and ease of preparation. It also scored highly for ease of sign-up, meal variety, and taste.
How it works: Factor offers six menus catering to a variety of dietary needs, including Keto, Calorie Smart, and Vegan & Veggie, and delivers 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, or 18 meals per week. You have full control over which meals you receive, including the option to add breakfast items or cold-press juices to your order.
Tester’s takeaway: According to McGrane, who tried the service for 2 weeks, “I’m usually skeptical when it comes to prepared meals since it’s hard to compete with freshly made dinners. However, Factor pleasantly surprised me. Not only were the dishes flavorful, but the textures of the ingredients were also spot-on.
“Specifically, the salmon was moist and not fishy, the chicken was juicy, and the vegetables were tender without being mushy. Even the quinoa in the Herbed Quinoa Pesto Bowl had a soft yet chewy texture.”
Read our full review of Factor.
Our score breakdownSign-up, delivery, and cancellation processes4.5Meal variety4.5Nutrition5Sustainability3Ingredient quality5Ease of preparation5Taste4.5Affordability3Pros & cons
Product details
Best for quick dinners
Home Chef
Why we love it: Home Chef offers several types of easy-prep meal kits, including Oven Ready, Fast & Fresh, Express, and Family Menu meal bundles. These meal kits make it easy to get dinner on the table, especially on busy weeknights.
Home Chef’s Oven Ready meals come ready to bake in oven-safe trays. The service also offers Express meals, which take about 15 minutes to prepare, and Fast & Fresh meals, which are more nutritious options that can be prepared quickly.
For busy families, Home Chef recently debuted its new Family Menu plan, which features 10+ weekly rotating recipes, all of which require minimal prep.
In addition to being easy to prepare, Home Chef scored highly for its ease of sign-up, meal variety, nutrition quality, and taste.
How it works: To get started, you’ll first complete a quiz, which asks questions about your reasons for choosing a meal kit service, your food preferences, and how many meals you’d like to receive each week. Box size options include two to six meals, with two, four, or six servings each.
While the service preselects meals for you based on your preferences, you can also create your own custom meal plan by selecting other options from Home Chef’s full menu.
Tester’s takeaway: Home Chef’s meals were a hit with our tester’s whole family, with Healthline writer SaVanna Shoemaker, MS, RDN, LD noting: “Everyone really liked the Chicken Lorraine. It came together really quickly, and the sauce for the chicken was delicious.
“I was pleasantly surprised by how much my kids liked the Turkey Burrito Skillet too — especially since it was full of vegetables. We would definitely use the service again if we ever needed some easy, quick weeknight meals.”
McGrane, who tried the company’s new Family Plan, also enjoyed the service: “This was my first experience trying Home Chef, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Overall, I was impressed by the ingredient quality (particularly the chicken) and how easy the meals really are to make.
“The dishes were also packed with flavor yet still approachable for my picky toddler. My biggest complaint was the lack of vegetables.”
Read our full review of Home Chef.
Our score breakdownSign-up, delivery, and cancellation processes4.5Meal variety4.5Nutrition5Sustainability4Ingredient quality4Ease of preparation4.5Taste5Affordability3Pros & cons
Product details
Best affordable
EveryPlate
Why we love it: Owned by the parent company of HelloFresh and Green Chef, EveryPlate is one of the best value meal kit companies on the market and can be an affordable, family-friendly alternative to pricier services.
While it doesn’t offer the same exciting flavor combinations or higher quality ingredients that some of the other services on our list do, EveryPlate is still a solid option for people who want to save time meal planning and grocery shopping without breaking the bank.
Plus, most meals are ready to enjoy in 30 minutes or less and require only six steps of preparation.
How it works: Meals are delivered weekly, with the option to receive three to six meals containing 1, 4, or 6 servings each. The menu rotates weekly and consists of 21 options from which you can pick and choose to build a custom meal plan.
Tester’s takeaway: According to McGrane, compared with other meal delivery services she’s tried, EveryPlate didn’t have the same exciting flavor and ingredient combinations.
Still, while the service wouldn’t be her top pick, she noted: “Considering that EveryPlate is almost half the price of similar meal kits and the ingredients arrived fresh and in good condition, I think it’s worth considering if your top priorities are price and convenience.”
Read our full review of EveryPlate.
Our score breakdownSign-up, delivery, and cancellation processes5Meal variety4Nutrition3.5Sustainability2Ingredient quality3Ease of preparation4Taste2Affordability5Pros & cons
Product details
Best plant-based
Purple Carrot
Why we love it: Purple Carrot makes it easy to eat more plant-based meals by offering creative flavor and ingredient combinations as well as a line of prepared meals for dinner in a flash.
For those short on time, the service offers single-serving microwaveable meals, as well as Less Prep meals, which are recipes that feature shortcuts to help you put dinner on the table faster, such as pre-chopped vegetables.
During testing, the service scored highly for nutrition quality, ingredient quality, ease of preparation, and taste.
How it works: Purple Carrot offers plans with three or four meals per week, with two or four servings each. However, you aren’t locked into a certain box size. Unlike other services on our list, you can choose to receive a mix of two- and four-serving meals, as well as add additional meals, like breakfasts and lunches, to your order.
Tester’s takeaway: McGrane has tried Purple Carrot several times over the years and most recently subscribed to the service for a little under 4 months. McGrane noted that she was drawn to the service as a way to incorporate more creative plant-based recipes into her family’s weekly meal rotation.
According to McGrane: “I really loved Purple Carrot at first. The recipes are unlike what I’d typically cook for dinner, and most of the meals were a hit with my picky toddler. I also appreciated that the meals were generally easier and faster to prepare than they used to be.
“However, after 3 months, I found that the recipes started to feel repetitive week after week. That said, I recently glanced at Purple Carrot’s new summer menu, and I’m tempted to try the service again as it does look quite a bit different from its menu over the winter.”
Read our full review of Purple Carrot.
Our score breakdownSign-up, delivery, and cancellation processes3Meal variety3Nutrition5Sustainability3.5Ingredient quality5Ease of preparation5Taste5Affordability3Pros & cons
Product details
How to choose a meal delivery service
Share on PinterestA comparison of the best meal delivery services
Here’s a quick look at how our top picks compare:
-Price per serving (entree)ShippingHealthlinescore (out of 5)Good forBlue Apron$7.99 to $12.49$10.994.7simple meal kits for beginnersFactor$11.49 to $13.99$10.994.3prepared lunches and dinnersHome Chef$9.99 to $13.95$10.994.3quick weeknight mealsEveryPlate$4.99 to $7.49$10.993.5budget-friendly dinnersPurple Carrot$11 to $13.25• free for orders of $99 and up• $10 for smaller orders4.0fully vegan dinnersOther services we tried
Narrowing down our favorite food delivery services wasn’t an easy feat. Here are additional services that scored well during testing but fell short of making our top five:
Our Medical Standards and Insights team has carefully researched and vetted over 11,000 products and services. We fact-check health claims, evaluate menus and ingredients, and look into each brand’s reputation before sharing products and services on Healthline.
To choose the meal delivery services on this page, we considered all the services that passed our vetting process. Then, we personally tested some of them to narrow down our list even further. Read more about how we test meal delivery services.
How we test meal kits
Share on Pinterest Images provided by Healthline testersAt Healthline, we know that meal delivery services aren’t a small investment, which is why we’ve taken the time to test more than 30 of the most popular meal delivery services on the market.
Testers select a week’s worth of meals from multiple menus to get a well-rounded view of the types of flavors and ingredients offered.
During testing, we consider several factors, including the ease of the sign-up and meal selection process, the variety and nutritional composition of the meals offered, ingredient quality and freshness, how easy the meals are to cook, and, of course, the taste.
Additionally, each service we feature is in compliance with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food safety and manufacturing regulations and uses a trusted shipper to handle its food products.
Learn more about how we test meal kits.
Best meal services for specific needs
Whether you’re looking to make gains at the gym or trying to reduce your sodium intake, it’s important to choose a meal delivery service that caters to your dietary needs and preferences.
Find the company that best fits your lifestyle in one of our roundups:
Discover more meal kit roundups and reviews.
Frequently asked questions about food delivery services
Which food meal delivery is best?
Blue Apron is our pick as the best overall meal delivery service thanks to its creative recipes and quality ingredients. Factor was our pick as the best for prepared meals, while Purple Carrot scored highly for fully plant-based meals.
Blue Apron is our pick as the best overall meal delivery service thanks to its creative recipes and quality ingredients. Factor was our pick as the best for prepared meals, while Purple Carrot scored highly for fully plant-based meals.
What companies deliver ready-made meals?
Many companies offer fully prepped meals that require little to no cooking.
Factor is our pick as the best prepared meal delivery service. The company offers single-serving, fully prepped meals that are nutritionally balanced and easy to reheat in the microwave.
For families, Home Chef and Mosaic Foods both offer multiserving oven-ready meals.
Many companies offer fully prepped meals that require little to no cooking.
Factor is our pick as the best prepared meal delivery service. The company offers single-serving, fully prepped meals that are nutritionally balanced and easy to reheat in the microwave.
For families, Home Chef and Mosaic Foods both offer multiserving oven-ready meals.
Is food meal delivery worth it?
Meal delivery services may be worth the price tag if you value their convenience.
Many services offer a wide selection of meal kits and ready-to-cook dishes to help streamline meal prep. Some services also offer fully prepared meals, which can be a time-saving alternative to cooking meals at home and may even be more affordable than ordering takeout.
Meal delivery services may be worth the price tag if you value their convenience.
Many services offer a wide selection of meal kits and ready-to-cook dishes to help streamline meal prep. Some services also offer fully prepared meals, which can be a time-saving alternative to cooking meals at home and may even be more affordable than ordering takeout.
What is the most affordable meal kit?
EveryPlate is one of the cheapest meal delivery service options available, starting at $4.99 per serving, depending on the number of meals you select each week. However, there’s also a $10.99 shipping fee on every order.
EveryPlate is one of the cheapest meal delivery service options available, starting at $4.99 per serving, depending on the number of meals you select each week. However, there’s also a $10.99 shipping fee on every order.
The bottom line
Although many food delivery services are available, only some offer both nutritious and delicious options.
The meal delivery services listed above have been tested to make sure they provide satisfying, tasty meals. Many also offer dishes that are suitable for a variety of dietary needs, food preferences, and common food allergies.
You can use the list above to choose the best meal delivery service based on your lifestyle and nutritional needs.
Posted : 2024-08-29 10:49
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