Startups are always coming up with creative products that help fulfill the needs of people. My favorite types of startups, however, are startups that center around food. These startups are meeting the needs of customers who either want ideas for their next meal or just want to get high quality meals delivered to them.
Here are five great food-centered startups that you should check out right now.
1. Gobble
Don’t have time for planning meals, cooking, or cleaning up? Gobble solves all three of those issues. Once a week, customers receive a package that contains a quick recipe along with the ingredients to make it.
All the recipes are intended to be cooked within one pan and take only ten minutes to make. If you want something that reduces your planning, cooking, and clean up time, then you need to check out Gobble.
2. Lish
If you’ve ever interned at a company or been to an event with catered food, you’re probably familiar and sick of the same type of catered food that is served every time. Lish, a catering service startup, takes on this problem through their business model.
What sets Lish apart from other catering businesses is their rotating team of chefs. The chefs are independent entrepreneurs that focus on creating fresh meals. First, you choose from a dozen of menus from the website. Then you provide company information such as the address of your office. Finally, all you have to do is wait, let your meals be delivered, and enjoy.
3. Peach
Peach is another food delivery startup that is trying to solve the issue of crappy lunches at the workplace. Here’s how it works. Every day, Peach will send you a daily menu from a different restaurant that you can select from. Once you’ve ordered your food, all you have to do is wait until you receive a text that says your food has arrived.
With Peach, you no longer have to get up and go get your food. You can order your lunch anytime, all from the comfort of your desk. You don’t even have to leave your office as Peach automatically delivers your food to your office.
4. Home Meal Club
One trend that has been going on for a while is buying food through Instagram. However, buying food via Instagram isn’t always the safest option, as the chefs that sell food could be scammers or the food could give you food poisoning. Home Meal Club creates a safe marketplace where people can buy food from independent chefs.
Founded by international students at the University of Washington, Home Meal Club strives to create a transparent marketplace to sell home-cooked meals to home sick students. One thing that Home Meal Club strives towards is authenticity. All of these chefs are home cooks. And Home Meal Club gives these chefs an opportunity to give home-sick students a chance revisit home via meal.
5. Blue Apron
Blue Apron is probably one of the most talked about startups right now. It’s been raved about by sources such as the Wall Street Journal and Good Morning America as one of the top food startups out there. Blue Apron is another meal plan delivery service that delivers ingredients to your door along with a recipe.
What sets Blue Apron apart from other meal plan delivery services is their focus on sustainability. Blue Apron uses practices such as pre-portioned ingredients and supporting regenerative farming in order to eliminate food waste. With Blue Apron, not only are you getting high quality ingredients, you are using a product that helps reduce food waste.
Of course, these organizations are only a handful from the collection of food centered startups operating right now. These are products that are changing the food industry as we know it. Who knows what will appear in the next ten years when it comes to creating a product that helps us with planning our meals? All I know is, whatever comes out will not be good for our waistlines.