Best Fresh Food Delivery
Winner
Best For Kids
Ordering from a fresh meal delivery service is a great way to take one thing off your plate (while keeping great food there at the same time!).
While many meal delivery services use foods that are flash-frozen after chefs prepare and portion them, fresh delivered meals are a great alternative. They maintain their full nutritional content, taste great, and even last up to a week in your fridge.
Fresh Prepared Meals
Factor Meals
BEST FRESH MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE​
Factor Meals is a meal delivery service that’s perfect for those looking to maintain their fitness and health. They use grass-fed and pasture-raised animals for meat and also incorporate gluten-free, non-GMO plant products for the rest of their ingredients.
Some diets, like soy-free, are accommodated within this service as well. Meals can be selected through several packages and the menu changes at least somewhat every week, but many of the same meals are staples on the menu from one week to the next.
Key Benefits
- 31 menu items
- $11-$15 per meal
- Complimentary nutrition coaching included with plans
- Pre-made meals last up to 7 days
Nurture Life
BEST FRESH KIDS MEAL DELIVERY MEAL SERVICE​
Nurture Life is a relatively unique fresh prepared meal delivery service, as it’s geared entirely toward kids. The plans use regionally sourced and nutritious ingredients that are all further nutritionist-approved. Ingredients are never frozen and are delivered refrigerated to last throughout the week.
To make things better, the plans use post-recycled packaging that’s all 100% recyclable after you’re done with the containers. There’s plenty of variety to accommodate pickier kids and the meals encourage healthy eating habits for your growing child.
Key Benefits
- 20 meal choices each week
- Uses recyclable packaging
- Easy meals for busy parents who want their kids to eat healthier
- $5.99-$7.99 per meal
- Customizable boxes available – good for kids that have favorites
- Good for up to seven days
Fresh n Lean​
Fresh N Lean provides organic meals delivered to your door. Each dish uses locally sourced and organically grown ingredients without gluten or artificial preservatives. The meals are ready in just three minutes and there are new menus every week, so there’s always plenty of variety. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring! Even better, Fresh N Lean uses non-BPA and fully recyclable containers and packaging.
Key Benefits
- $11-$16 per meal
- Fresh meal plan options for paleo, plant-based, low-carb, keto diets
- 56 healthy meals total
- Ready meals last up to 6 weeks when frozen
- Free delivery nationwide
Trifecta Nutrition
Trifecta Nutrition allows you to maintain your fitness and health goals thanks to their nutritionally balanced meals. Every dish is macro balanced to help you hit your nutritional needs with fats, proteins, and carbs. Every meat product is 90% lean or greater. Furthermore, you can customize your meal planning because every plan allows you to choose your food items à la carte. It’s a great fit for those who want to get in shape and lose weight.
Key Benefits
- 6 premade healthy meal plans to choose from
- $109-$119 in total for each plan
- A la carte options are $6 per meal with $119 for delivery
- Good for paleo, keto, vegan, vegetarian, and other special diet needs
- Lasts between 6 and 10 days
Epicured​
Epicured provides gut-friendly and low-FODMAP meals straight to your door. They also provide gluten-free delivery. You can choose a delivery schedule up to four weeks or on a more temporary basis, plus you can have your food delivered either to your home or office.
You get to pick all your meal favorites each week, of which there are dozens to afford plenty of meal variety. This meal delivery service makes adapting to a healthier lifestyle easier than ever.
Key Benefits
- 57 items not counting snacks
- Low as $3.99 for side dishes up to $19.99
- Good for Low FODMAP or gluten-free diets
- Variable delivery schedules available
- Last for 3 to 5 days
Pete’s Real Food​
This is another paleo-diet-focused service. It provides meals using seasonal and organic ingredients, and every meal is cooked fresh by chefs on the day that you order them. The menu changes on a weekly basis because of seasonal ingredient availability.
It’s also optimal for those with sensitive stomachs or intolerance to gluten, soy, etc. Different plans following these requirements are available for easy meal selection.
Key Benefits
- $79.95 per week
- Meals change every week
- Ready-made meals with organic produce
- 5, 10, 14-meal subscriptions choices
- 4 full menus browsable by season
- Food stays fresh up to three weeks in the fridge
Thistle​
Thistle provides plant-focused and delicious meals, juices and snacks. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all represented with both plant and meat protein options to accommodate a variety of diets. Every meal is prepared fresh, and it’s easy to skip a delivery or pause while you’re on vacation. The menu is globally inspired and rotated at least partially every week based on what is currently in season.
Key Benefits
- $11.50-$13.75 per meal
- 24 menu items every week, including snack
- Menus rotate weekly
- All meals 100% gluten and dairy-free, with some vegan options
- Meals good for between five and seven days
MamaSezz​
This company provides plant-based meals for whole food nutrition. The options are all ideal for vegan diets and premade to be delivered the week after placing your order. Containers can be recycled by shipping them back to the distribution center with your shipping label. Both bundles and à la carte food products are available – the bundles are great if you want to target a particular nutritional benchmark or lose weight.
Key Benefits
- Free shipping on bundles but not a la carte
- 35+ menu options available
- $6.99-17.99 per mealAll options are great for vegans
- Good for between 10-18 days from delivery
Cookunity
Cookunity is a unique prepared meal service because the meals aren’t all made in the same kitchen. This delivery service functions as a chef-collective, which means there’s a team of chefs spread across the country to prepare meals for customers in their region. This ensures the freshest possible meals and a never-ending selection of innovative recipes.
Key Benefits
- Choose 4 to 16 fully prepared meals per week
- Chef-crafted meals from a nationwide chef collective
- Ready-to-eat meals delivered weekly with a flexible subscription
- Locally sourced, seasonal ingredients
Sakara Life
Sakara Life is a meal delivery service that believes in using food as medicine. Their healthy recipes are made with seasonal, fresh ingredients from hand-selected farms. The entire menu is plant-based, and there are multiple meal plans to choose from.
Plans are designed to help you meet certain health goals, like improving your metabolism and gut health or detoxing before your wedding. Sakara also offers a great selection of supplements and snacks you can add to your delivery.
Key Benefits
- Plant-rich, science-backed recipes
- Nutrition programs for specific health goals
- Mostly organic, sustainably sourced ingredients
- Meals are 100% plant-based but not vegan because of the use of honey and bee pollen in certain recipes
Fresh Meal Kits
All the above options are tasty alternatives to putting together your own home-cooked meal. But what if you enjoy the art of cooking and just need a little help grabbing the right ingredients? You can still eat healthily and avoid going to the grocery store while getting to complete your meals yourself. For those who consider cooking to be part of the fun, this is the way to go.
Tovala
Tovala is a new type of meal kit delivery, and while it comes with a steep price tag, customers cannot get enough of Tovala meals. Unlike most meal kits that require 10-20 minutes of prep work before you start cooking, Tovala is the first meal kit service to cut prep time down to less than a minute and put cooking on auto-mode.
All meals are cooked in the Tovala smart oven that connects with the app to cycle through different cooking settings for delicious, restaurant-quality meals in 25 minutes or less. The oven can also be used to reheat and toast other items in your kitchen, so you’ll get your money’s worth out of the appliance in no time.
Key Benefits
- Choose 4-16 meals from weekly menus
- Meals require just one minute of prepping
- All meals cook in 25 minutes or less
- Tovala smart oven and app ensure meals are cooked to perfection
- Dedicated toast and reheat settings on the Tovala oven
Green Chef
Green Chef is one of the best meal kits for people with specific dietary preferences or needs. They have meal plans to accommodate a keto, gluten-free, and plant-based diet, plus high-protein and low-calorie options. All ingredients are certified organic, and fresh produce is at the forefront of the recipes, so you’ll get plenty of veggies per serving!
Green Chef has a new menu every week, and all the recipes are easy to follow. This meal kit is great for people who want to prepare their own meals without following too many complicated steps.
Key Benefits
- High-quality ingredients are certified USDA Organic
- Online nutrition coaching
- Keto, gluten-free, Mediterranean, plant-based, calorie-smart, and high-protein meal plans
- 46 meal options to choose from on each weekly menu
- Easy-to-follow recipes
Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh is one of the most popular meal kits, and it’s a great choice if you’re trying meal kits for the first time. There are new recipes to choose from every week, with a good variety of familiar favorites and globally-inspired flavors. The flexible subscription plan makes it easy to skip a week, change your delivery date, or change the amount of meals you receive per week.
Hello Fresh is not organic, but their ingredients are fresh high-quality, and they create delicious meals!
Key Benefits
- Family-friendly meal kit service
- Most recipes are ready in 30 minutes or less
- Flexible subscription
- New recipes every week
- Better variety of flavors than most meal kits
Fresh Food Delivery
You can also look into food delivery services. Basically, these are grocery stores that offer to deliver food ingredients and raw items (fruits, vegetables and the like) straight to your door. Don’t have time to go to the supermarket yourself? Not a problem.
FreshDirect​
FreshDirect is an online grocery store, but you can order premade meals, too. There are over 40 options to choose from in total. Selecting meals for your diet is easy via the filtering buttons on the side of the interface.
You can select either premade meals with several portions or add individual food items à la carte to your list.
Key Benefits
- Guaranteed fresh up to 3 days
- Vegetarian, low-fat, no-sugar, high-fiber options
- Prices range from $4.49-$11.99
- 42 meals to choose from
- Can select items à la carte
Hungryroot
BEST FRESH FOOD DELIVERY​​
Hungryroot provides a modern way for people to shop for food products without having to go to the store themselves. Users can set up a profile detailing their dietary needs or preferences, then let Hungryroot do the rest. They’ll handpick several brands and ingredients for your meals, then deliver those with easy to follow recipes you can finish at home.
Key Benefits
- Plans available for 1, 2, or 3 people
- Priced between $69-$129 for 11-21 items
- All packaging is recyclable
- Only picks high-quality food brands and ingredients
- All recipes take around 10 minutes to complete
Bottom Line
All in all, meal delivery services are a great way to keep a healthy lifestyle without having to stress about putting a meal together yourself. Best of all, most of the options above are pretty easy to try, then cancel if you want to give another service a shot. We’d recommend Factor Meals overall, but it has several tough competitors that might be a better choice, depending on your needs.
Think carefully about what menus you like, consider your diet, then take the plunge!