Freshly is a meal delivery service that prides itself on the healthiness of its meals. The brand's food philosophy involves minimally-processed foods and real food ingredients.
But is Freshly actually healthier than most meal delivery brands or is it just better at marketing? What are the ingredients in a typical Freshly meal and are they healthy? And perhaps most importantly, how do real customers rate the taste and convenience of Freshly meals?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we review Freshly's food philosophy to give our take on whether or not the brand is actually healthy.
We'll also analyze the ingredients in some Freshly meals and feature real customer reviews.
UPDATE: Freshly has shut down its service at the time of updating this article. See the section titled "Our Clean Meal Delivery Pick" below for our updated healthy meal delivery pick.
What Makes Freshly Different?
Freshly publishes their “Food Philosophy” on their website, and the three core tenets are: Less Sugar, Less Processed, More Nutrients.
Not only is there minimal added sugar in Freshly meals, but the sugar sources tend to be healthier.
Some Freshly recipes use honey instead of processed cane sugar. Honey has been shown in a 2017 medical review to be a "natural therapeutic agent for various medicinal purposes," and is much healthier than processed white sugar.
Freshly’s second goal is Less Processed, and they do a good job in this regard. Most Freshly meals contain no preservatives at all, which is an anomaly for meal delivery brands.
As we documented in our Factor Meals review article, most meal delivery brands include preservatives with questionable health effects.
Natamycin is a preservative in some Freshly meals which was shown in a 2014 clinical trial to have low toxicity.
While we recommend avoiding preservatives entirely, we consider natamycin to be a safer choice than some commercial preservatives.
Freshly’s third goal is More Nutrients, and this is achieved by swapping grains for vegetables in many of their dishes.
As a few examples, one of their meals is a cauliflower pasta and another is a shepard’s pie made with butternut squash mash.
This approach is a great way to increase nutrient intake to support optimal health.
Overall, Freshly is doing a good job of actually sticking to their marketing claims and food philosophy, and we consider the brand to be healthier than the average meal delivery brand.
Real People Try Freshly
A YouTube creator named "BTT" reviewed six Freshly meals and discussed everything from the taste, to some issues with the packaging, to the cost:
A TikTok user named Liz Hund found Freshly meals to be mediocre:
@liz_hund Not my favorite, but good for those who don’t like to shop, prep, cook or clean #mealkit #review #food #groceries ♬ Elegant Instrumental Background Music - Coffee Kaffee Café
Ingredient Analysis
In this section we'll analyze the ingredients in two randomly-selected meals from Freshly's menu to give our take on whether or not they're healthy.
Some ingredients in Freshly's steak peppercorn meal are shown above.
This meal contains a good balance of macronutrients (macros) with 26 grams (g) of fat, 38 g of carbs, and 29 g of protein.
Meals containing a moderate protein dose can help promote healthy blood sugar response, according to a 2021 clinical trial.
Overall, we consider this a relatively nutritious and healthy meal, but we wouldn't recommend it for two reasons.
The animal products (meat and dairy) appear to be sourced from conventionally-raised animals.
Animal products from grass-fed animals were shown in a 2006 medical review to be healthier (due to a more optimal fatty acid ratio) and better for the environment.
This meal also contains the additive natural flavors listed two separate times. As we referenced in our ProLon review article, clinical studies have shown some natural flavoring agents to be toxic.
The ingredients in Freshly's chicken parm meal are shown below:
Our comments are similar to the previous meal: relatively nutrient dense with high protein, but uses conventionally raised animal products.
This meal provides 42 g of protein, which is a significant amount for a 410 calorie meal.
Most of Freshly’s meals would make good post-workout meals due to the high protein content.
This dish has broccoli, butternut squash, cauliflower, carrot puree and veggie marinara, so it’s a good blend of protein and veggies, and this type of dietary diversity can optimize gut health, according to a medical review published in the Molecular Metabolism journal.
Freshly's chicken parm not only includes the questionable additives natural flavors and natamycin, but also contains citric acid which was shown in a series of case reports published in the Toxicology Reports journal to cause whole-body inflammation in some individuals.
Our Take – Is Freshly Healthy?
Overall, we think Freshly is pretty healthy, but still a worse option than cooking fresh, local ingredients at home, or using a meal service with higher quality standards.
Freshly does a good job at sticking to their core values and providing meals which are relatively nutrient dense, minimally processed (for the meal delivery industry), and low in added sugar.
Freshly could be a good option for consumers with a high income and minimal free time, who require the convenience of delivered meals.
Many of the meals are under 500 calories, which doesn’t constitute a full meal, especially for people who are active.
A healthy, active young man would likely need upwards of 3,000 calories daily, so this expensive delivered meal might only constitute 15% of his caloric requirements.
We think Freshly is a better option than most of its competitors, and provides healthier meals than most Americans eat, but we can't call the brand healthy overall due to our high nutritional standards.
Freshly Closes Down Operations
At the time of updating this article in 2024, it appears that Freshly has shut down due to business failure.
A report published in Food Business News claims that Freshly made the official closing announcement in December of 2022, and that the final meals were shipped in January of 2023.
It's unclear what the specific reason is for the shutdown, but it seems to be financial in nature.
The above-linked report details that when pandemic restrictions loosened, more consumers returned to shopping for groceries in person, which harmed Freshly's business model.
It does not appear that Freshly was the subject of a lawsuit or any external factor causing the shutdown.
Our Clean Meal Delivery Pick
Trifecta Nutrition is our top meal delivery service pick because of its nutritious options.
Their meals are created by chefs, and most importantly, the meals are rich in vitamins and minerals because they're primarily made with vegetables and grass-fed meats.
Unlike many commercial meal plans, Trifecta doesn't use filler carbs for most of the calories.
Pros and Cons of Freshly
Here are the pros and cons of Freshly in our opinion:
Pros:
- Relatively healthy meals
- Better than most commercial brands
- Decently priced
- High protein content
- High vegetable content
Cons:
- Mediocre customer reviews
- Some meals contain preservatives
- Some meals contain natural flavors
- Meat and dairy appear sourced from conventionally-raised animals
