For many, January is the equivalent of the first, fresh page of a notebook - pure, clean and ready to start fresh.
After the excesses of December, who isn’t looking to rebalance the scales with heaps of fruit and veg? The trouble is that healthy eating can be tricky in gloomy weather, when all you want to do is to carb-load in front of the box until the first sign of spring’s daffodils.
But with a little helping hand, it can be done - and you don’t even have to leave the house if you don’t want to.
Sound too good to be true? Believe it. Food delivery boxes are here to save the day and keep your goals on track with boxes of farm fresh fruit and veg.
While recipe food boxes are perfect for eliminating waste and allow you to meal plan for the next few days, fruit and veg deliveries are ideal for the busy worker who is trying to balance flexi-working with eating properly.
They allow you to skip temptation at the supermarket and keep fresh ingredients to hand, ready to knock up a quick midweek meal or snack when you fancy it. Leftovers can be sliced or chopped up and frozen, leaving you with money in the bank for future meals. Anything that encourages us to get our five-a-day is okay with us.
We’ve found the best healthy food delivery boxes worth spending your hard-earned cash on. Many are delivered without unnecessary plastic packaging, with seasonal produce firmly in the spotlight so not only are you helping local British businesses, but you’re doing your part for the environment too.
See the best options below
Abel & Cole
Established since 1988, Abel & Cole is one of the best known organic fruit and veg delivery companies in the UK.
On a mission to fill the nation’s fridges and bellies with better, fresher food. Simply select a box, which can be customised with your preferred produce, and add any extra bits whether that’s fish, eggs or meat. It will then be delivered to your door with minimal recyclable packaging.
Ordering a box is a great option if you want to cook more but find it difficult to get decent high-quality produce nearby. It’s commitment-free too: pause or skip a box any time.
What's more, the brand donates a portion of produce to those in need every week, helping to fight the UK's food poverty issue. Abel & Cole supports causes like the Felix Project, Dons Local Action Group and School Food Matters.
From £14.25.
Buy now £14.25, Abel & Cole
Planet Organic Organic & Seasonal Fruit & Veg Box medium
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that when you eat fresh, you’ll feel miles better. Give your takeaway apps a break and turn instead to Planet Organic where this box of goodness is waiting to make you feel better from the inside out. The medium-sized box is heaving with produce from carrots and cauliflower to leafy greens and root veggies. There’s even wildcard mystery options of fruit and veg to keep things exciting.
Buy now £20.00, Planet Organic
London Grocery
An online supermarket catering for the capital and surrounding areas, London Grocery not only offers fruit and veg by the box, but fresh produce like fish & seafood, meat & poultry and dairy and eggs products as well as recipe boxes. It’s a build-your-own-box sort of situation, so if you know what you like - and crucially, what you absolutely do not - this is a good option for getting and using everything in your order.
Buy now, London Grocery
Pikt
Hand selected and packed produce at affordable prices, Pikt is a delivery service worth your time and money.
The brand packs boxes the day before delivery to ensure supreme freshness and anything deemed unsuitable to given to the company’s staff canteen, so not one jot goes to waste. Crucially, there’s no subscription - just order ready-made, employee, gift box or bespoke boxes as and when required. Easy peasy.
The choice is huge too, with more than 70 fruit and veg to add to your bespoke box giving you the variety you crave.
As well as standard seasonal fruit and veg boxes, Pikt also offers bundles to help baby weaning, juicing boxes and boxes for bars, so you’ll never run out of garnishes and wedges come happy hour.
From £10.
Buy now £10.00, Pikt
Gousto
More than one million people have signed up to recipe box company Gousto. Perhaps one of the secrets of its success is the sheer range of recipes it offers, with healthy choices in the mix too. If you want to up the number of veg on your plate, this is where you should focus your efforts, along with veggie and vegan meal ideas.
Gousto has long been a favourite on the ES Best desk thanks to its simple instructions and premeasured ingredients that take the pain out of cooking, leaving nothing but joy.
Buy now, Gousto
HelloFresh
When there's more on your plate than thinking about what to have for dinner, take one thing off your to-do list with HelloFresh. One of the UK's best known recipe boxes, there are options galore to add to your weekly rotation. Recipe categories span Mostly Meat, Veggie, Family, Quick Cook, Calorie Smart and Pescatarian, covering most bases. Choose boxes for 2 - 4 people with 3 - 5 ingredients and recipes in each, giving you flexibility if you fancy dining out of a takeaway in the week. Subscribe now for 60 per cent off your first box, 25 per cent off the next two months, plus a host of free gifts.
Meals from £3.15 per person.
Buy now, HelloFresh
Mindful Chef
A recipe box service aimed at the health conscious, a clear audience once you see all Mindful Chef’s meals are free from dairy, gluten, refined carbs and refined sugars. There are 20 options to choose from every week, so you won’t get food fatigue from eating the same thing every night.
Delivery days is available any day of the week, allowing you to fit meals around your own schedule and events. The fully flexible subscription can be paused, skipped or cancelled any time, including how many meals per order and delivery dates, making a Mindful Chef subscription a positive choice that you’re more likely to continue.
Best of all, this is one of the few recipe boxes that caters for single people, handy if you live on your own or if the rest of your household doesn’t want a piece of the action. New subscribers can claim 25 per cent off the cost of their first four boxes.
Buy now, Mindful Chef
Balance Box
Dieting done easy, even if you live in a remote part of the country. Balance Box offers four plans: classic, vegetarian, pescatarian and free-from, perfect for those with food intolerances. Balance Box even offers two portion size options, the lighter at 1,200 calories a day and the market plan which totals to around 1,800 calories a day.
Whichever one you go for, you can be sure to open a box containing breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks each day – everything you need and removing any possible temptation to go off plan as you won’t need to go to the shops at all.
What’s more, all the food is ethically sourced and produced with no unnecessary additives or preservatives, perfect for those trying to cut back on processed food.
Each meal is colourful and beautifully presented in a sturdy tub, easy to transport to work.
From £26.99.
Buy now, Balance Box
Daylesford Organic
You’ll feel healthier simply by browsing the fruit and veg on offer at Daylesford, a premium organic delivery service. Whether you’re fully embracing veganism or just trying to get more plant-based ingredients into your diet, this company can help. Choose seasonal organic produce to add to your box, or opt for the Market Garden Veg Box (pictured) which has a medley of items to boost nutritional brownie points at mealtimes.
Buy now £15.00, Daylesford
Riverford Organic Farmers
For one of the easiest ways to introduce more organic fruit and vegetables into your diet, Riverford is on hand to deliver a steady supply of produce, offered alongside a recipe card with tips and tricks to create delicious dishes depending on the seasonal food available. Everything has been grown on its farm, which means it comes to you the freshest it can be.
Choose between the sizes and the content varieties and have fresh and organic produce delivered to your home for free. You can also top up the boxes with any additional items from the organic farm shop.
From £12.65.
Buy now £12.65, Riverford
Oddbox fruit and veg subscription
Here’s a fact that will have you revelling in its lunacy: more than a third of the fruit and veg grown on Britain’s farms gets binned before it’s even left the fields from where its been plucked. Why? Simply because it’s oddly-shaped or a bit funny looking.
That’s an obscene waste of perfectly good food, something this company was determined to do something about. Oddbox takes curvy carrots, odd onions, peculiar pears and more produce deemed too ‘ugly’ for the supermarket aisles and instead boxes them up for weekly drop-offs to London addresses.
This saves tasty produce from landfills and all packaging is 100 per cent recyclable or biodegradable. As far as delivery goes, you can have it sent to your home or office with a range of size options – small, medium and large – and with a combination of fruit and vegetables. You can also receive pure veg or pure fruit boxes as well as individual and family sizes which can be personalised to suit your needs.
Caring for planet and palates, signing up with Oddbox is an all-round win.
Oddbox donates 10 per cent of its produce to charity, including City Harvest.
Buy now £10.99, Oddbox
Fruit4London
With a mission to get more fruit and veg into the hands of time-poor Londoners, Fruit4London is based in Spitalfields and delivers all over the capitals in electric vans. Dropping parcels of goodness to offices as well as homes, the produce can be delivered in boxes or baskets for gifting and looks miles better and fresher than anything you'll find in the supermarket. We're talking gobstopper-sized grapes, slightly green bunches of bananas that will ripen over the next few days, and crunchy apples as the ultimate afternoon snack.
The company also offers pantry essentials, herbs, dairy products and more on its site, making it easier than ever to be stocked up.
Boxes start at £12.
Buy now, Fruit4London
