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HelloFresh bumps meal kit recipe count to 30 per week

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

HelloFresh has announced it’s expanding its weekly menu from 25 to 30 recipes in an email to customers.

The company now claims that it offers the largest menu of any meal kit provider.

Rival Home Chef claims that it has over 30 offerings each week, but that includes customizations such as changing or adding proteins. Blue Apron, meanwhile, offers under 20 base recipes each week, though it typically offers at least three “heat and eat” options as well — plus customization and add-on options.

HelloFresh also offers the option to customize or add proteins to select recipes, so the actual count when combinations are counted would be higher.

Having a high number of meal options each week for any meal kit company can be crucial in ensuring customers can find meals they like along with avoiding any food preferences, dietary restrictions or allergens.

However, they can also drive up costs and logistics because more recipes typically require a wide variety of ingredients as well as potentially less efficient fulfillment when workers assembled boxes for shipment because they have more possibilities to pull from. It also likely slightly increases the chance that the wrong meal could be sent to the customer.

Some meal kit companies strategize menus by looking for ways to use the same ingredients across multiple recipes each week, which could increase their buying power and simplify buying a bit, though it’s easy to push this too far and feature too many recipes that feature the same ingredients.

Most meal kit companies have also started offering add-on items such as meat for vegetarian dishes plus additional items such as soups, salads and desserts, as well as quick breakfast and lunch options and even a small selection of grocery items. These items are typically sold at an additional cost.