Let’s face it, in a world that keeps each of us so busy, feeling stressed, or otherwise distracted, eating three square meals a day isn’t as easy or common as it used to be. Fast food is more convenient than ever with late-night drive-thrus and scads of third-party delivery options. Today it’s just as easy to get cookies delivered at 2am as it is a pizza for dinner.
Nearly 85 million Americans eat fast food every day. That’s a lot of pizza, burgers and burritos! Whether consumers are driven toward fast-food choices because of convenience, socioeconomics, or because they love the taste, studies show the downside of these choices: foods high in calories and fat contribute to obesity and a less healthy lifestyle.
Learn how to order your Meal Prep
Too Much of a Good Thing
Too much of some fast-food options can wear on our health. Fast foods are typically higher in calories, fat, saturated and trans fats, sugar, simple carbohydrates and sodium, all of which can be detrimental to our health when consumed regularly. As consumers learn more about the consequences of convenient dining at some fast-food establishments, they have begun to seek out and drive healthier trends.
An ideal solution includes healthier food made with quality ingredients, that is also extremely convenient to fit the busy lifestyles of Americans and their families.
A New Kind of Food Delivery
A new segment in meal prep delivery has been making its way toward the head of the “let us make your life easier” line. Food prep services first entered the market as a “make-and-go” option, where consumers paid for a morning or afternoon class, learned how to prep and make meals for the week, and left with enough meals to fill their freezer and accommodate their family’s busy schedule. The food was freshly prepared from quality ingredients. Participants could feel good about time well spent.
Food Prep Services Offer More Options
Eventually, even these food prep classes – designed to add better food quality to our lives – became inconvenient. Who wanted to spend an entire weekend afternoon in the kitchen perfecting their food prep skills? This conundrum created a new problem to solve for those in the food preparation services market. The business model transformed to one that made meal kits, or prepared meals, available for pick up or delivery. These food prep services often offered weekly or monthly subscription options, giving consumers multiple menu options that appealed to their tastebuds and fit their budget.
Better Variety with Healthier Options
In general, professional food prep services businesses promote their brands as healthier fare with higher quality ingredients. Some come with disassembled ingredients and recipe cards. Others, like UpFresh Kitchen (Search it using: Food Prep Charlotte NC), provide ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat meals for added convenience. Business models like UpFresh Kitchen exceed customer expectations when it comes to convenience because of their multiple distribution options: pick-up, delivery, dine-in or distribution to community coolers.
Food Preparation Services Industry at a Glance
Approximately one in five U.S. consumers receive meal kit delivery services, and 81% of the population perceives them as a healthier option. Over 14 million American households ordered Food prep delivery services near them in 2018, and the numbers have continued to trend upward since then. By 2022, the market is expected to reach 11.6 billion dollars.
Americans in general are thinking more about their health. There are mass demands for certified organic and non-GMO foods. The Federal Food and Drug Administration now requires calorie counts on restaurant menus for consumers to review, and there is a general understanding that food ingredients can contribute to or detract from a healthier lifestyle.
Quality Ingredients for Better Health
Higher quality ingredients can lead to less stress in our life. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It makes sense to connect the dots and conclude that a diet which includes healthy food prep services could indeed help us eat better food made from higher quality ingredients, and in turn, create a healthier lifestyle. So, do meal prep services help people eat better? If you are someone who has gaps in their diet, or relies too much on fast food, then meals you find when searching “food prep near me” may certainly help you to eat better.
Sources:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/761621/meal-kit-delivery-service-market-value/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/07/03/home-meal-kit-phenomenon/102544292/
https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/cpg-and-fmcg-79150
https://www.news-medical.net/health/Obesity-and-Fast-Food.aspx