Meal kits combine pre-portioned ingredients with recipes or cooking instructions. Recent statistics show a category with meaningful but still limited household penetration: 22% of surveyed U.S. consumers used a meal-kit service during the three months ending March 18, 2026, while 64% of existing users said their usage had increased over the prior year. Company reporting also shows a wide range of operating models, from HelloFresh’s hundreds of millions of meals to smaller services reporting subscriber declines.
Table of contents
- Consumer adoption and demographic demand
- Brand usage and service preferences
- HelloFresh orders, meals and pricing
- HelloFresh revenue, regional scale and outlook
- Blue Apron customer and financial metrics
- Marley Spoon subscribers and operating performance
- Packaging, sourcing and what the numbers mean
Consumer adoption and demographic demand
The latest consumer-adoption figures in this dataset come from the KPMG Consumer Pulse Survey Summer 2026, fielded among U.S. consumers from February 27 through March 18, 2026. KPMG found that 22% of surveyed U.S. consumers said someone in their household had used meal-kit services during the prior three months. The other 78% said their household had not used meal-kit services during that period.
Among the people who were already meal-kit users, 64% said their usage had increased over the preceding year. This is a usage trend among existing users, not a claim that 64% of all U.S. households increased their purchases. Read together, the figures describe a category with a minority of households participating but substantial momentum among current users.
Restaurant-offered kits show a different measure: stated purchase likelihood rather than completed purchases. In the 2023 National Restaurant Association State of the Industry Report: A New Normal, 69% of U.S. adults said they were likely to purchase a restaurant meal kit containing measured ingredients and cooking instructions.
Age differences were pronounced in that 2023 survey. The reported likelihood was 86% among Gen Z adults, 82% among millennials, 74% among Gen X adults and 48% among baby boomers. These percentages should not be compared directly with KPMG’s 2026 usage rate as if they measured the same behavior: the first set captures stated likelihood of buying a restaurant-offered product, while the latter captures recent household use of meal-kit services.
Brand usage and service preferences
KPMG also asked U.S. meal-kit users which services they had used during the prior three months. HelloFresh was selected by 36% of users, followed closely by grocery-store meal kits at 34%. The grocery-store category included examples such as Kroger, Publix, H-E-B and Fresh Direct.
Blue Apron was selected by 31% of U.S. meal-kit users, while Home Chef was selected by 26%. Freshly reached 25%, Green Chef 20%, Daily Harvest 15%, Purple Carrot 12%, Sun Basket 12% and Plated 9%.
| Service or category | Share of U.S. meal-kit users selecting it | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| HelloFresh | 36% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Grocery-store meal kits | 34% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Blue Apron | 31% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Home Chef | 26% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Freshly | 25% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Green Chef | 20% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Daily Harvest | 15% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Purple Carrot | 12% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Sun Basket | 12% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
| Plated | 9% | February 27–March 18, 2026 |
The percentages do not sum to 100% because KPMG allowed multiple selections. A user could therefore appear in more than one service or category. The results measure reported recent use, not market share, revenue share or order share.
HelloFresh orders, meals and pricing
HelloFresh’s company-reported figures provide one of the clearest views of operating scale. In Q2 2026, HelloFresh recorded 16.59 million Meal Kits orders and delivered 139.8 million Meal Kits meals. Its Meal Kits average order value was €63.9 excluding retail, or €64.5 on a constant-currency basis.
For the first half of 2026, the company recorded 35.87 million Meal Kits orders and delivered 304.1 million Meal Kits meals. The Meal Kits average order value for the period was €62.2 excluding retail. The half-year Meal Kits external revenue was €2,231.9 million, compared with €1,059.9 million in Q2 alone.
HelloFresh also reported profitability measures for the category. Meal Kits contribution margin was 28.2% in Q2 2026. Meal Kits AEBITDA was €167.0 million, producing a 15.2% Meal Kits AEBITDA margin. These measures apply to HelloFresh’s Meal Kits reporting and should not be treated as estimates for the entire meal-kit industry.
The order and meal totals also illustrate why definitions matter. HelloFresh reports Meal Kits separately from Ready-to-Eat, and the figures above are Meal Kits measures. The average order values exclude retail where stated. Constant-currency figures are presented as a comparison basis rather than as a separate cash amount received from customers.
HelloFresh revenue, regional scale and outlook
The FY 2025 HelloFresh results reported €6,760.8 million of group revenue and €422.8 million of group AEBITDA for 2025. The company’s meal-kit product-category AEBITDA margin was 13.5%. HelloFresh processed 100.53 million group orders and delivered 851.6 million group meals during the year. Group average order value was €66.8 excluding retail.
North America accounted for 53.66 million of those 2025 group orders and 427.9 million meals. The North America average order value was €78.3 excluding retail. HelloFresh also recorded 46.87 million International orders. These regional figures are company-reported operating measures, and the International order figure is not a complete statement of International meals or revenue in the supplied results.
HelloFresh’s outlook issued in March 2026 was less expansive than a simple growth narrative. The 2026 outlook called for a 3% to 6% constant-currency decline in group revenue and projected group constant-currency AEBITDA of €375 million to €425 million. The revenue range is a forecast, not a reported result, and the constant-currency basis means it is intended to remove the effect of exchange-rate movements from the comparison.
Blue Apron customer and financial metrics
Blue Apron’s First Quarter 2023 Financial Results reported 1.608 million orders and 326,000 customers in Q1 2023. Average order value was $70.27, orders per customer were 4.9 and average revenue per customer was $346.
Those measures describe customer activity over a single quarter. Orders per customer and average revenue per customer are company metrics for the reported period; they do not establish a typical annual customer value or a category-wide benchmark. The different units also matter when comparing Blue Apron’s dollar figures with HelloFresh’s euro figures.
For full-year 2022, Blue Apron’s Annual Report reported net revenue of $458.467 million. Marketing expense was $84.118 million, and the company reported a net loss of $109.733 million. These are financial-statement figures for Blue Apron, not measures of the financial performance of all meal-kit providers.
The combination of quarterly customer activity and annual financial results gives two useful perspectives. The Q1 2023 metrics show the volume and frequency attached to the active customer base at that time. The 2022 figures show the scale of revenue, marketing spending and net loss across the prior fiscal year. Because the periods differ, they should remain separate rather than being combined into unsupported annualized calculations.
Marley Spoon subscribers and operating performance
Marley Spoon reported €80.7 million of revenue across its reported portfolio in Q1 2024, according to its Q1 2024 Results. Gross profit was €36.9 million and gross margin was 45.7%.
The same report listed 194,000 active subscribers in Q1 2024, down 23% from the prior-year quarter. Orders per subscriber increased 2% year over year, while average order value increased 14% year over year in constant currency.
The subscriber definition needs careful handling. Marley Spoon’s Q1 operating metrics cover its wider portfolio, while Active Subscribers are specifically defined around Marley Spoon or Dinnerly meal kits. Accordingly, the €80.7 million revenue figure and the 194,000 active-subscriber figure should not automatically be read as covering exactly the same product scope.
The reported pattern is mixed: fewer active subscribers than a year earlier, but higher orders per subscriber and a higher constant-currency average order value. Those directions are company-reported changes for Q1 2024. They do not, on their own, explain why the changes occurred or predict later performance.
Packaging, sourcing and what the numbers mean
Packaging is a central practical issue for delivered meal kits. Blue Apron’s 2023 Proxy Statement said approximately 87% of its meal-kit packaging was recyclable by weight in a 2022 company disclosure. Blue Apron also set a goal for 100% of meal-kit packaging to be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
The same disclosure said Blue Apron’s meal-kit cold-chain gel packs were designed to be drain-safe and 100% recyclable. It also said approximately 80% of what went into its meal kits was sourced directly from producers and farms.
These figures describe Blue Apron’s disclosed packaging and sourcing position, not an industry average. The 87% figure is a 2022 company disclosure, while the 100% figure is a goal announced for 2025. A goal should not be presented as a completed result unless a later source reports achievement. Likewise, “recyclable by weight” and “sourced directly” describe particular measurement concepts and should not be expanded into broader claims about total environmental impact or supply-chain performance.
For readers comparing meal-kit services, the statistics point to several distinct questions: how many households use kits, how frequently existing users return, which channels they choose, how many meals a provider delivers, and what packaging and sourcing standards the company reports. The answers vary by survey wording, company definition, currency, geography and measurement period, so the figures are most useful when each limitation stays attached to the number.