Advertisement

Meal kits better for the environment than meals cooked from supermarket ingredients, study finds

Meal kits, which deliver a box of pre-portioned ingredients for a meal to feed a family, have boomed in popularity in recent years  - COPYRIGHT JAY WILLIAMS
Meal kits, which deliver a box of pre-portioned ingredients for a meal to feed a family, have boomed in popularity in recent years - COPYRIGHT JAY WILLIAMS

Home-delivery meal kits are greener than supermarket meals, a scientific study has claimed, as reduced food waste offsets extra packaging.

Meal kits, which deliver a box of pre-portioned ingredients for a meal to feed a family, have boomed in popularity in recent years with companies like "Simply Fresh" and "Gousto" becoming household names.

However the kits have gained a bad environmental reputation because of the amount of packaging waste they produce.

But the first of its kind study by the University of Michigan found that meal kits have a much lower carbon footprint than if all the ingredients are bought separately at the supermarket.

Even though meal kits do use more packaging, average greenhouse gas emissions were one-third lower for meal kit dinners than shop-bought ones, it found.

Scientists considered every step in the process of making the meal, from farm to landfill, and found that pre-proportioned ingredients and a streamlined supply chain lowers the food loss and waste for meal kits.

meal - Credit: COPYRIGHT JAY WILLIAMS
'Mindful Chef' kit makes Chipotle Chicken, Sweet Potato and Chunky Guacamole. Credit: COPYRIGHT JAY WILLIAMS

Emission differences between meal kits and shop-bought meals were influenced by three main factors, food waste, packaging and the supply-chain structure.

Household waste from supermarket meals had more emissions than meal kits for all five meals. Researchers said this is because meal kits pre-portion ingredients leaving fewer ingredients wasted.

Senior author Professor Shelie Miller, from the University of Michigan, said: "Meal kits are designed for minimal food waste.

"So, while the packaging is typically worse for meal kits, it's not the packaging that matters most. "It's food waste and transportation logistics that cause the most important differences in the environmental impacts of these two delivery mechanisms.

"We took a close look at the tradeoff between increased packaging and decreased food waste with meal kits, and our results are likely to be a surprise to many, since meal kits tend to get a bad environmental rap due to their packaging."

gousto - Credit: JAY WILLIAMS
'Gousto' kit for Sea Bass Pak Choi and Szechuan Sauce Credit: JAY WILLIAMS

Meal kits and shop-bought meals also have radically different supply chains which influence their greenhouse gas emissions. By skipping a brick-and-mortar shop altogether, the direct-to-consumer meal kits avoid the food losses that commonly occur in supermarkets, resulting in large emissions savings.

In this study, last-mile emissions accounted for 11 per cent of the average grocery meal emissions compared to four per cent for meal kit dinners.

First author doctoral student Brent Heard said: "The way consumers purchase and receive food is undergoing substantial transformation and meal kits are likely to be part of it in some way.

"In order to minimise overall impacts of the food system, there is a need to continue to reduce food loss and waste while also creating advances in transportation logistics and packaging to reduce last-mile emissions and material use."

The research by the University of Michigan was published yesterday in the journal of Resources, Conservation and Recycling.