The Healthiest Meal Delivery Kits: A Nutritional Study and Analysis (Updated 2020)

• Over 300+ meals analyzed at seven of the top meal kit delivery services.
• Nutritional results concluded for calories, fat, carbs, sugar, fiber, protein, cholesterol, and sodium.
• Updated to include Hello Fresh, Green Chef, Freshly, Sun Basket, Dinnerly, Every Plate, and Home Chef.

The word “healthy” is one of the most ambiguous words in the meal kit delivery industry that can mean something entirely different to every person. Healthy might mean the fewest calories, the best ingredients, lowest number of carbs, or a medium between taste and nutrition. For those on diets or with specific dietary concerns, healthy might be something even more specific.

Why is this important? If you’re trying to pick out a meal delivery kit that meets your definition of healthy, you may be struggling to find the data you’re looking for. In this study, our team looked at seven of the most popular meal kit services and pulled nutritional data from over 300 of their meals. We aggregated the data in this study to give you a better idea of which meal delivery kit is the best fit for you. Be aware that we disregarded things like price, taste, delivery options, and all the other factors that go into the full decision. If you’re looking for a more complete picture of a meal delivery service, please check out or meal delivery kit reviews.

Before we dive into the data, here are a few quick takeaways drawn from the study to give you an idea of what you can expect to get out of this.

• Home Chef had the largest average protein per serving at 41.44 g. The average amount of protein per serving across all seven meal delivery services was 33.99 g, with an average range from 28.12 g of protein to 41.44 g. 
• Freshly had the fewest average calories per serving. Calories per serving range from 503.71 g to 809.40 g with an average across all companies of 682.64 g.
• Only five of the seven meal delivery companies reported dietary fiber. Of those five, Sun Basket had the highest average per serving of fiber at 8.74 g.

Included in this meal kit delivery nutrition study:

• Raw Data
• Brief Summary of Methodology
• Overview of Meal Delivery Services Studied
• Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Calories
• Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Carbs
• Meal Delivery Kits with the Highest Protein
• Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Fat
• Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Sodium
• Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Sugar
• Meal Delivery Kits with the Highest Dietary Fiber
• Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Cholesterol
• Conclusions
• Complete Methodology
• Research Considerations

The Raw Data – Healthiest Meal Kit Delivery Service

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• Fat, saturated fat, carbs, sugar, dietary fiber, and protein are measured in grams (g).
• Cholesterol and sodium are measured in milligrams (mg).
• Meal delivery services with “NA” did not readily provide that nutritional fact.
• Sample sizes vary due to some meal kit companies with smaller total menu options.
• Providers with multiple specific plans were all equally included in calculations.
• Full conclusion and breakdowns below

Brief Summary of Methodology

For this meal delivery kit study, our team collected nutrition data from a large sample size of meals from seven of the most popular meal delivery kit companies. For companies with several plans, an equal number of meal selections were taken from each plan to provide the most accurate numbers. No additional factors usually included in picking out the best meal kit service were considered (taste, cost, delivery options, features, etc.)

All data is for one serving for a dinner entree from each service. Actual serving sizes are up to the discretion of the vendor and were not considered in the collection of this data. The idea is to portray what you would get by signing up for each service without using any secondary form of portion control or measuring. In other words, how healthy is the meal kit if you follow each company’s serving sizes and consumption instructions.

Overview of Meal Delivery Services Studied

For this meal delivery service study, we chose seven of the most popular companies currently operating in at least the U.S. market. The seven meal kit companies are:

• Hello Fresh
• Green Chef
• Freshly
• Sun Basket
• Dinnerly
• Every Plate
• Home Chef

Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Average Calories

1. Freshly – Average calorie count of 503.71 per serving
2. Sun Basket – Average calorie count of 539.20 per serving
3. Home Chef – Average calorie count of 696.02 per serving

For many, healthy eating means cutting down on their caloric intake. If you’re on a diet or worried about putting on a few extra pounds, this becomes especially important. People who classify the healthiest meal delivery kits by how many calories they have per serving will enjoy the fact that all seven of the meal delivery services we studied had an average per serving calorie count of well under 1,000 calories.

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Conclusions:

• Freshly not only had the lowest average calories of all the meal delivery kits, but the company also had the lowest ceiling with the highest calorie meal we saw at only 630 calories.
• While Hello Fresh did have a meal that clocked in at 1640 calories, only 4 of the 50 meals we studied had a calorie count over 1,000. For those curious, the 1640 calorie meal was the Ultimate BLT Burgers with Herby Aioli.
• Keep in mind that our study accepted the serving sizes given by each company. This means that in some cases some of the lower calorie count meals may also be smaller in portion size.

Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Average Carbs

1. Freshly – Average carbs of 42.11 g per serving
2. Green Chef – Average carbs of 46.36 g per serving
3. Sun Basket – Average carbs of 51.44 g per serving

Many popular diets and styles of eating look to lower or eliminate carbs. The top meal delivery kits know this and many offer some specific plans that are built for the carb-conscious. The span of average carbs from the lowest to the highest was nearly double, showcasing that some meal kits love carbs and others fit more in the carb-conscious camp.

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Conclusions:

• Freshly’s highest carb meal we studied still came in lower than the average carbs at Dinnerly, Every Plate, and Hello Fresh.
• Home Chef had only one meal at the 9 g mark — the Sweet Pepper Butter Pork Chop with Asiago Asparagus.
• Note that carbs are not always a bad thing when consumed in moderation, even though the layout of this chart might lead you to believe that was our intent.

Meal Delivery Kits with the Highest Average Protein

1. Home Chef – Average protein of 41.44 g per serving
2. Hello Fresh – Average protein of 35.80 g per serving
3. Every Plate – Average protein of 34.18 g per serving

Protein is the building block of healthy muscles. Even if you’re not an athlete or a bodybuilder, getting adequate amounts of protein is extremely important to your body’s health and recovery. It’s quite evident that many meal delivery companies understand this and offer products jam-packed with lean proteins to build that muscle.

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Conclusions:

• Be aware that some of these meal kit services offer the ability to pay a few extra bucks per meal and add additional proteins to boost up the count. We didn’t include any of the add-ons in our study.
• Home Chef had only two meals underneath the 20 g per serving mark. Additionally, only 8 of the 50 meals we studied came in under the 30 g mark.
• 23 of the 50 meals from Sun Basket we studied (last on this list) still had protein of 30 g or more.

Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Average Fat

1. Freshly – Average fat of 23.91 g per serving
2. Sun Basket – Average fat of 25.16 g per serving
3. Every Plate – Average fat of 33.07 g per serving

While healthy fats are actually good for you, many dieters and healthy eaters want to limit the amount of fat (particularly unhealthy fats like saturated fats) from their diets. One of the widest ranges of averages in our entire meal kit delivery study was in the category of fat.

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Conclusions:

• The highest average at Green Chef was over double the averaged at both Freshly and Sun Basket.
• Hello Fresh’s 120 g of fat meal was an outlier, as the next meal the company offered had only 69 g of fat. In this study, we chose not to remove outliers. However, if you remove the 120 g of fat meal, Hello Fresh’s average fat content goes down to 40.96 g.
• Home Chef and Dinnerly did not report saturated fat data through the data sources we used.

Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Average Sodium

1. Sun Basket – Average sodium levels of 627.10 mg per serving
2. Green Chef – Average sodium levels of 659.40 mg per serving
3. Every Plate – Average sodium levels of 783.07 mg per serving

While some sodium in your diet is important, too much sodium can make you feel bogged down and have a negative effect on your overall health. Finding meal delivery companies that source lower-sodium ingredients and don’t put unnecessary seasonings can be important to a healthy diet. Keep in mind that at all meal delivery companies, you get the ability to pick your meals every week. While some of these companies have higher sodium averages, many offer options low in sodium every week if that is what’s important to you.

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Conclusions:

• The average sodium levels at Home Chef were about 2.5 times that of Sun Basket.
• Dinnerly did not provide sodium information through the data source we used for this nutritional study.
• The meal with 2480 mg of sodium at Hello Fresh is one of only two over the 2000 mg mark. This meal is the same outlier that raised the average for calories and carbs. If you remove the single outlier, the average sodium drops to 904.69 mg. If you remove both meals over the 2000 mg mark, the average drops to 872.08 mg. With both changes, Hello Fresh would maintain the same ranking at 5th.

Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Average Sugar

1. Freshly – Average of 8.32 g of sugar per serving
2. Sun Basket – Average of 10.66 g of sugar per serving
3. Green Chef – Average of 12.48 g of sugar per serving

Managing your sugar intake is an important part of staying healthy. This becomes especially true if you have the need to be on a sugar-limited diet. While some naturally occurring sugars are a healthy part of your diet, too much of a good thing can change that. Here’s a look at how these meal delivery companies stacked up. We were only able to acquire data on five of the seven companies.

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Conclusions:

• All but one of the meal kit company’s lowest sugar meal was 4 g.
• 24 of the 35 meals from Freshly we studied had sugar per serving less than 10 g.
• Hello Fresh had 15 meals with 10 g or fewer sugar per serving.
• Home Chef and Dinnerly did not provide sugar information through the data source we used for this study.

Meal Delivery Kits with the Highest Average Dietary Fiber

1. Sun Basket – Average fiber of 8.74 g per serving
2. Hello Fresh – Average fiber of 7.80 g per serving
3. Green Chef – Average fiber of 7.44 g per serving

One of nature’s great helpers to keep us healthy and cleaned out is dietary fiber. Many of the meal delivery services we studied use natural ingredients that are packed full of fiber.

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Conclusions:

• 13 of the 50 meals we studied from Sun Basket had 10 or more grams of dietary fiber. Hello Fresh had the same number of meals.
• Home Chef and Dinnerly did not provide fiber information through the data source we used for this study.

Meal Delivery Kits with the Lowest Average Cholesterol

1. Sun Basket – Average cholesterol levels of 95.00 mg
2. Green Chef – Average cholesterol levels of 99.90 mg
3. Freshly – Average cholesterol levels of 105.71 mg

For many, being heart healthy is all about watching their cholesterol. While only five of the seven meal kit providers gave readily available data on cholesterol, we were still able to draw some meaningful conclusions to help those that classify the healthiest meal delivery services as those with low cholesterol levels.

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Conclusions:

• Sun Basket had nine meals with zero cholesterol; Green Chef had eight.
• Hello Fresh had 14 meals under the 100 mg cholesterol mark.
• Home Chef and Dinnerly did not provide cholesterol information through the data source we used for this study.

Conclusions

Hopefully, the data we’ve analyzed here has helped you to identify the best meal kit delivery service for you. If you’re still on the fence about which company to try, we’ve included several additional resources here that can help. We’ve added our top 10 list, our thorough reviews (that look at way more than just nutrition), and our how-to-pick guide.

• Top 10 Meal Kit Delivery Services
• Meal Kit Delivery Service Reviews
• Choosing the Best Meal Delivery Service

Complete Methodology

• Nutritional information was pulled directly from the meal delivery companies’ data sources. 
• The minimum sample size was 35 meals and the maximum sample size was 50 meals. 
• Meals were selected randomly over the course of a month and a half menu period.
• If multiple meal plans existed, attempts to draw an equal number of options from each plan were made. 
• Data was aggregated and the necessary conclusions were drawn.
• No outliers were eliminated from the study. 
• If data was not present, ‘NA’ was posted. 

Research Considerations

Here are the research considerations you should keep in mind when analyzing this data. Our main goal was to give casual eaters the ability to see where the most popular meal delivery services stacked up across several different nutritional lines. 

• All data is for one serving size as outlined by the different providers. We did not convert all data to the same serving size based on portion sizing. 
• Price was not used at all in the study. Many companies may rank higher nutritionally but also may come with a higher cost per meal. 
• Meals kit offerings are constantly changing. This means that some of the meals we covered my no longer be available and new meals we did not cover may be offered. Additionally, we did not study every meal offered. Our goal was to choose a wide enough sample size that encompassed as many offerings as possible to get the best information possible.
• Some of the meal delivery services offer individual plans designed to target specific nutritional needs. We treated each company as a single data point but did try and take an equal number of meals from each plan. There may be plans available at certain meal service companies listed here that are more fitting for your goals than the data may suggest. 
• We did not include every meal delivery service on the market. Our team selected seven of what we collectively deemed as the most popular options. 
• Several of the meal kit companies specify that due to sourcing, the nutritional labels may not always be entirely active. We did not test the meals to see if the labels were accurate. Instead, we made the assumption that they are correct.

Hello Fresh

Green Chef

Freshly

Sun Basket

Dinnerly

Every Plate

Home Chef