The pandemic has created new opportunities and challenges for the meal kit industry. On the one hand, more people staying at home brought about a surge in this market sector. There was an interest in curated, home-cooked meals where all the ingredients were provided, and meal kits led the way. On the other hand, the pandemic also showed that shipping disruptions could adversely affect when cargo arrives.
For meal kits, this means specific shipping considerations to protect freshness like insulated shipping boxes.
Variable Destinations
Different logistics chains are big factors that grocers don’t have to worry about. Grocers have their goods well-established through specific supply chains, but different meal kit businesses rely on different service providers and routes to deliver meal kits to customers all over the country. So that need to be prepared to ship ingredients to California or Florida must have an overall precautionary measure in place, like insulated shipping boxes, that are flexible enough for different shipping times and destinations.
No Bruising
As with the shipping of any raw ingredient, the content of meal kits is extremely delicate. Raw fruits, vegetables, seasonings, and other ingredients are all part of the meal kit package. As to be expected from fruits and vegetables that people eat, these are delicate and must be well-protected to ensure they don’t arrive at their destination bruised and perhaps even inedible and unsafe to eat.
Temperature Maintenance
The other crucial factor is temperature. Raw ingredients mean sustained exposure to high temperatures can accelerate the rotting process, as with any other cargo of fruits and vegetables. However, powered refrigeration, such as in a reefer unit, is not always available, especially during transitional legs of the supply chain when freight is left sitting on pallets, sometimes in warehouses, sometimes outdoors, for hours at a time, waiting for the next leg of the journey.
Insulated shipping boxes can be crucial to protecting meal kits in these cases, especially with disruptions.
