I watch a lot of YouTube, and among the many sponsored segments there’s been one consistent subscription service I see many creators endorse: HelloFresh. If you’re not chronically online, or simply aren’t familiar with the world of HelloFresh, it’s a meal subscription delivery company. Customers can select a few meals a week that HelloFresh will prepare and package all the needed ingredients for, then deliver them in a box right to your doorstep. Meal cards with instructions are included so once you have the box, a meal can easily be put together without needing to find recipes, plan out ingredients, or shop at the grocery store. People buy HelloFresh for the convenience; it seems perfect for busy people who don’t have time for all the steps required when planning meals.
Now, being a sixteen year old in high school and living with my parents, I see these ads and quickly skip through—as much as I like to cook, I generally have no need for HelloFresh. That is, until I got thinking…for all the sponsorships, is HelloFresh something people should be endorsing?
Unfortunately, while I cannot speak for myself since I do not and never have used HelloFresh, due to its popularity many have taken to the r/HelloFresh subreddit, articles, and other forums to complain about the company. Customers have experienced extreme problems with the boxes, from a couple ingredients missing to full meal kits simply not getting packed in peoples’ boxes. Many have reported unusable ingredients, such as moldy cheese, overripe tomatoes, and broken packaging for meats. Although HelloFresh does offer a “refund” it’s given as credit back to one’s account, meaning if they choose to end their subscription they’ll never receive the refund. The credit also cannot be used with other promotions, such as veteran and student discounts. Additionally, needing to replace items in the majority of boxes you receive ruins the “convenience” of the service. Customers are paying specifically to avoid the mental load of going shopping, in fact, many claim it’s often cheaper to go to the grocery store instead of buying a meal kit.
When I heard that, I was a little skeptical. I mean, how much cheaper could it really be to grocery shop yourself? After breaking down ten random meals I found on the HelloFresh website onto this spreadsheet, I found it’s roughly three dollars cheaper per meal—not including that many meals use repeat ingredients, and won’t use the entire product (if you do subtract repeat ingredients it’s about five dollars cheaper per meal). That doesn’t sound like much, but $5 can add up when using HelloFresh for a long time. Plus, most of the time when buying ingredients yourself you’ll have extra ingredients leftover unless you change the amount used in a recipe since HelloFresh often only uses 6.7 oz of a 9 oz can of beans, for example.
However, as much as I believe extra ingredients leftover is a major plus as there’s more food to eat for a cheaper price, others see it as a selling point for HelloFresh. It means there won’t be food rotting in the back of your fridge you’ll later have to throw out. In short, people find it less wasteful, despite the huge amounts of plastic waste it creates.
Yes, HelloFresh minimizes food waste by only giving consumers the exact amount of food they’ll need for a recipe, but it’s all packaged in single use plastic—even the carrots!
Photo Credit: realmomnutrition.com and dailymail.com
The absurd amount of plastic used to make these meal kits counters the food waste created from typical grocery shopping. Despite normal grocery stores also using plastic to package their food, many of the vegetables, seasonings, and oils that HelloFresh gives to customers can be found either unpackaged or in sustainable glass or recyclable containers. Plus, if you are smart with the meals you choose and eat leftovers, you can avoid much of the grocery shopping food waste.
To meal kits’ credit however, research has shown that on average, a meal sourced from stores produces 33% higher greenhouse gas emissions when compared to the same meal from a meal subscription service. Thus, despite the packaging, it may be more sustainable to purchase a meal kit from an environmental standpoint. Ultimately, there’s nothing incredibly wrong with HelloFresh to where creators shouldn’t endorse them. Grocery shopping and planning meals yourself is inherently cheaper and you can cater recipes to your liking, such as accommodating for allergies or preferences, but paying for a food subscription service means spending extra for the convenience (when the food is actually edible) and lack of thinking required on the consumers’ part. Although countless customers have experienced problems with the quality and reliability, for people without the time or willingness to plan what to eat, it’s easy and quick. Similarly, it’s great for beginners wanting to learn how to cook but don’t know where to start. HelloFresh posts all their recipes on their website HelloFresh.com/recipes with measurements and directions, so if you don’t want to pay the charge for the service, you can recreate it yourself at home. HelloFresh is one of those YouTube sponsors that almost everyone knows, and surprisingly? It isn’t a total scam (as long as you’re in its target demographic).