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7.4

Overall Score

LAST UPDATED: October 30th, 2023

Blue Apron sends you farm fresh ingredients and original recipes to cook 2-4 meals in your home each week. Here's how it works: You select the meals you want to eat for the week. Blue Apron then sends you perfectly portioned ingredients to make those meals. They also include step-by-step recipes that utilize foods that are in season. Customers can choose when the meals are delivered each week. Blue Apron was founded in 2012 in New York by Matt Salzberg, a former computer engineer. Salzberg believes that the best food is made at home, and that his company empowers people to make their own delicious meals. Today, they have grown to 501-1000 employees. Their goal is to help eliminate food waste by sending you exact ingredient amounts. At the same time, they also want to save consumers time by eliminating trips to the grocery store and meal planning.

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The Good

  • No hidden fees
  • Low-calorie meals
  • Variety

There are no hidden prices with Blue Apron. The price you see for meals includes everything - even shipping. Most companies that offer weight loss meal plans will charge consumers for their food and shipping (and they may throw in a few extra fees for a membership and consultant). But Blue Apron is different. Even though there is no guarantee of weight loss, Blue Apron's healthy meals are sure to help anyone struggling to eat healthy (and in turn, perhaps lose a few pounds). On their blog, Blue Apron shares the story of one person trying to learn to cook with healthy ingredients in order to lose weight and then keep on top of her goal weight. She used Blue Apron to do this, stating that their clean food made her food good again. Each meal from Blue Apron is around 500-700 calories. When you go to select your meals for the upcoming week, you'll be able to choose from six options (options change each week, so you aren't stuck eating the same foods). The options you get to choose from show the meal's calories, ingredients, cooking instructions, and cooking time. We like the the transparency all this information provides. You always know what you are getting yourself into. While TBC cannot provide unique commentary on the taste of Blue Apron's food, there are many positive reviews about the taste. They use traditional and unique recipes each week. Most people report the meals tasting healthy and light, but still filling. Another thing to note about Blue Apron is their variety of meals. While you may only have 6 to choose from each week (and most people buy 2-4 meals per week), the meals are always seasonal and always changing. Here is a sample menu for a week in July:

  • Vadouvan-Spiced Lamb Burgers
  • Chicken Milanese
  • Cod & Miso Soba Noodles
  • Summer Bean & Mushroom Pasta
  • Summer Corn & Vegetable Chowder
  • Crispy Eggplant Pitas
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The Bad

  • Pricing
  • Weight loss
  • Experience

It is difficult to compare the price of meal services, like Blue Apron, that only provide customers with one meal a day, with full on diet food meals. Most of the meal plans that we have reviewed on TBC are for meal plans designed to help people lose weight. Because of this design, weight loss companies provide food for every meal of the day (some may only provide for 2 meals a day, while others include multiple snacks). Because Blue Apron's focus is on providing healthy, seasonal meals, weight loss is a possible secondary benefit. The company does not say anything about weight loss on their site, nor to they make any guarantees. For those interested in losing weight with a meal plan product, Blue Apron may not have the idea meals for them, In general, Blue Apron seems more expensive than direct competitors. If you look at the price of one meal (a little under $10), it's a much more expensive meal than other meal plans. However, it just depends on what you are looking for in a meal plan. Blue Apron has only been around for 3 years (since 2012), and was founded by a computer engineer. Many of the other companies in the meal planning industry were founded by chefs, dieticians, and people in business. This might be the only one that was founded by someone with experience in a completely different industry. We wonder what credentials Blue Apron's founder has and what experience he had in meal planning, if any, before starting his business. Even though the 2-person plan has 6 options to choose 3 from, the family plan only gives you 4 options to choose from each week. If you select the 2-meals per week plan, this may leave you with some variety. However, if you select the 4-meals per week plan, there is no room to leave out meals you don't like. We wish the family meal plan came with more options.

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The Bottom Line

Overall, there are a lot of things to love about Blue Apron:

  • Fresh, seasonal ingredients
  • Local ingredients (you can even see some of the farms your foods come from)
  • Perfectly portioned ingredients (no waste from buying pre-packaged food at the grocery store)
  • Easy meal planning

If you are a busy person, who doesn't have time to meal plan and shop at the grocery store, but you are still someone who loves to cook, Blue Apron is a good meal service for you. They may be a little more expensive than their competitors, but their interesting recipes could be worth it. We recommend looking at them and a few of their competitors (HelloFresh and Plated) to see which meal options look more enticing to you. Either way, you can't go wrong with fresh ingredients and a home cooked meal.

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Star Rating

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4.1

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111 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

45%

4 grade

34%

3 grade

11%

2 grade

6%

1 grade

4%

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Reb R

I’ve tried a couple different meal kit services in the past. This one was not one of my favorites. The app did not have many meals to choose from which left me skipping weeks more often than not. The ingredient quality was good. Many of the recipes were super repetitive, A lot of similar ingredients in everything. I don’t feel it was worth the cost.

6 months ago

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Frances lorenzo

I absolutely love the Blue Apron concept and honestly the ingredients are always perfect and fresh. It has conpletely changed for the better the way my boyfriend and I eat . That said, the delivery is amost never on time but their customer service department is always on top of everything to make it the best experience. I am considering similar services to try but for now I'm sticking to Blue Apron

6 years ago

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Cassidy Gundersen Orem, UT

Blue Apron has some good and creative meals for a decent price. I didn’t think they were amazing by any means, but it was good. The price isn’t terrible, but the portions were fairly small and each recipe took upward of 30-45 minutes to make. Overall I felt that it wasn’t worth the money.

6 years ago

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Breanna Jones Salt Lake City, UT

We received a $40 off coupon so we gave it a try. I would never pay full price for this service or subscribe. It is too expensive. I like the convenience of not having to meal plan though. I wish you could choose what meals they send you. Two of the three meals they sent us were really good. If it was cheaper, I would consider subscribing.

6 years ago

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Jennifer Alonso Asbury Park, NJ

Unlike plated that offers a wide variety of cultural recipes and plenty of options to choose from every week, blue apron had a limited number of selections, that often repeat or are very similar. Ive also noticed a majority of their recipes are Asian so if you like diffent types of asian food such ad korean, vietnamese, or chinese this is the perfect meal delivery service for you.

3 years ago

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Amy Christian Sandy, UT

Meals got weird. Too much time and effort spent on making an insignificant sauce that would top a piece of meat. This should be marketed to people that enjoy cooking weird small meals, rather than feeding a hungry family quickly. Also, way too expensive. Customer service was frustrating, wanted to keep charging me because I didn’t give a large enough notice to cancel. Something weird like, you’ll get the next 4 weeks still because you need to give us a 3 week notice. Huh?!

4 years ago

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Lesa Burgess Pleasant Grove, UT

I mostly loved the food from Glue Apron and I also thought it was quite simple. My husband loved the meals. The downsides are all the garage you get when you order. There is so much material that comes in every package. I also don't like how they don't have a larger family option. To feed my whole family I would need to order 2 family sized orders and that's just too crazy expensive.

5 years ago

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Donna St Louis, MO

boring meal choices and servings are small. you don't have to go grocery shopping but still takes time

4 months ago

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Amy Singleton Gilbert, AZ

I loved how everything was measured out and came fresh. Easy to make and gave new ideas for meals. I didn't like that I paid a lot of money for it and still had to do all the work. I mind as well have been out to dinner and saved the mess. It was healthier than going out. Cancellation was easy after I tried for a few weeks.

5 years ago

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Wayne Young Little Rock, AR

We used Blue Apron and it was more difficult than we could handle for an easy dinner. It is good if you have the time to prepare the meal. They do have good instructions and the quality is good.

3 years ago

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Lindsey American Fork, UT

Blue Apron has a very user-friendly website and appealing interface. I think it's a great option with yummy food if you're a busy working family.

6 years ago

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CoachTrista Saratoga Springs, UT

I used Blue Apron for about 6 months. If you love an asian flair to every meal, then this is for you. I honestly got tired of frequency of ginger and bok choy

3 years ago