Meal kit delivery service HelloFresh claims its meals have significantly lower carbon emissions than cooking meals from supermarkets.
HelloFresh has published a technical summary of its ISO 14040 compliant life cycle assessment (LCA) that analyses environmental footprint of meals across the whole value chain of meal kits and supermarkets. It found that meals from HelloFresh meal kits cause up to 27% lower carbon emissions than meals with ingredients from supermarkets in Australia.
The study also reveals that in Australia, ingredients are by far the biggest contributor to emissions, followed by distribution due to long distance driving. Packaging contributes 3%-13% of the total impact, and is always less than preparation and distribution in the HelloFresh system.
One meal from a HelloFresh meal kit is said to cause on average 3.9 kg CO2e emissions compared to 4.6 kg per meal cooked with supermarket ingredients. HelloFresh says this proves that its on demand meal kits with ingredients in exact quantities are efficient and its meals have a lower climate impact than meals prepared by buying comparable food at a supermarket.
About the study
The in-depth life cycle assessment analyses the environmental footprint across the whole value chain from field to fork in seven HelloFresh markets (Germany, Austria, Australia, USA, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) covering different meal categories, including vegetarian, beef and chicken dinners. The analysis considers the entire supply chain including food production and delivery.
The main differentiator between the meal kit providers and supermarkets is HelloFresh’s data-driven subscription business model that enables forecasting weekly customers’ food demands which results in lower volumes of unsold inventory and food waste. Additionally, HelloFresh’s significantly shorter supply chain eliminates unnecessary middlemen and logistics.
Read the Life Cycle Assessment Technical Summary here.
Insights gained from the critically reviewed study are part of HelloFresh’s newly published Sustainability Report which displays the progress of the groups’ ambitious sustainability strategy.
