Formulation of meal boxes for Health Conscious Consumers
Meal box or diet box are common terminologies for packing a healthy meal. These readymade boxes can either be a pack of pre-portioned ingredients for you to cook at home or well-prepared foods that can be heated before consumption. The rationale behind the concept is that you can avoid running to the grocery store, buying unnecessary items and searching for a mouthwatering recipe. This is specifically useful for people struggling to cook a proper meal after a long day at work. Consumers are increasingly aware of their health requirements and a wide array of diet plans from the internet, and consumers are looking for nutritious, homecooked and budget-friendly options.
Although consumers prefer to eat a nutritious and balanced meal most of the time, it is not easy to sustain this by regularly eating at home. Restaurant meals or fast food take out are fancy and stimulating but are often loaded with fat, sugar, salt and other kinds of un-nutritional things which can make you sick. Food manufacturers and businesses have found an opportunity for such consumers and created a meal box. Food product development companies hire chefs, registered nutritionists to prepare recipes with the right ingredients based on recommended daily allowances.
Food manufacturers display various variables such as various recipes under different plans, based on diet and health needs, which most primarily get various recipes under different plans, based on diet and health needs, which mostly get delivered to the doorstep. The best part of such plans is that consumers decide what they would like to eat from all the healthy options and food businesses cater to all types of dietary restrictions.
This includes Diabetes-Friendly, Carb-conscious, Lean & Clean, Performance Protein +, Low Carb/Low Cal Plant-based, Performance paleo, Mediterranean Diet, DASH diet, Standard Keto, Plant-based meals of new food product development.
Food companies such as Purple Carrot offer meal boxes for aubergine date curry, barbeque seitan, cashew coconut grain bowl, and panko crusted tempeh etc absolutely delicious and offer a new sensory experience.
A few of the other big brands currently in the subscription food market are, Hello Fresh, Gousto, Blue Apron etc. Most companies cover the easy, balanced meal options in the popular cuisine category, such as Thai, Indian, Italian and Mediterranean, due to their focus on taste and flavour.
Why is this popular?
1. Convenience:
Consumers might find it challenging to cook for one or two individuals. Consumers can avoid going to the grocery store and it also significantly reduces the prep time, as most ingredients are separated in their own packs. The meal-kit comes either cold or frozen to ensure the ingredients don’t spoil, giving you ample time to prepare it. The mal kit also comes with a detailed recipe card with pictures for added benefit, explaining every step of the process.
2. Trying new every day:
Figure 1 Popular options available in the market.
Meal-kit allows you to try new and healthy options without having to invest your time and energy. Meal-kit also provides various options, somewhere between 6 and 15 meals a week to choose from. Food businesses have breakfast, lunch and dinner options that will keep you nurtured the entire day.
3. Minimal clean-up and no leftovers:
Since meal-kits are pre-portioned, servings can’t be stretched and mostly, you won’t end up with leftovers. However, cleaning up after your meal is relatively quick and easy. The preparation only requires pantry essential, i.e. salt, pepper, sugar etc. and cooking utensils, i.e. frying pan, stove etc.
4. Cost and low environmental impact:
Meal kits are as cheap as cooking at home, but convenience comes at a cost. Finding a business that serves meal kits at a price is not that hard to find. Most companies offer discounts for new customers. Meal kits use a good amount of packaging, which poses a concern to the environment. It is difficult to ship food at the desired temperature without insulated cardboards, disposable ice packs and plastics bags. Although most packaging can be broken down for recycling, food manufacturers are working on alternative options.
Some meal-kit companies are taking the sustainable route in achieving zero waste. Sealed Air’s thermal liners are made from virgin fibres and are recyclable. Moreover, the gel packs are from Nordic Ice and are made from low-density polyethene (LDPE) and non-GMO cotton. Gel pack contents could be drained into trash or composted while the LDPE packs can be recycled.
Recyclable PET containers are also available with the base jar made of polystyrene and the lids from polypropylene.
6. Shelf life:
With clean, organic ingredients and sustainable packaging, the next question to be answered is the shelf life? Is the product stable at ambient temperatures or needs to be stored cold or frozen.
Companies such as True Food Innovations primarily focus on processing techniques, like high pressure processing and well developed formulations, which provides a long term shelf life of 55 -60 days. This provides ample shelf life for consumers to enjoy their meals.
Are you ready?
If you are a new food business and would like to tap into this category, then you may consider targeting consumers under the following categories.
1. Flexitarian: We have extensively covered how consumers are moving towards a flexitarian diet in our previous blog.
2. Free-form: This is a wide area as it covers gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, vegan and a combination of these.
3. Fitness enthusiasts and healthy options: Companies are also focusing on creating recipes specific to athletes and gym enthusiasts. The rationale is to maximize the nutrients and help consumers achieve their goal. Some companies are attracting consumers using buzzwords such as seasonal ingredients, lean cut meats, and local produce.
How to convert your popular recipes into a meal kit?
- Start by creating your meal kit version of a few of your best signature dishes, based on the understanding of what your customers love.
- You also do not want your consumers to recreate your recipes, so include spice mixes or unique sauces with raw ingredients.
- You can also create a box version of your healthy recipe.
- The options are endless when it comes to meal box kits. As a new business, you need to be innovative in creating new recipes based on dynamic food trends, taste perspectives, and seasonal ingredients.
- You could also perhaps consider bringing some of the old favourites, which most major companies don’t dare to try.
Where to start?
If you are entirely new to this business, you can try Food Research Lab food kitchen to test your meal kits. Moreover, our food technology experts will help you through various rules and regulations in your area of sale, enabling your product to promptly reach customers’ hands. We will also help you with a cost analysis of a new food product development for the specification and certification process of your product. What are you waiting for ? Reach us at salessupport@foodresearchlab.com.
