The U.S. meal kit industry has matured into a multibillion-dollar market, valued at $5.95 billion in 2024, with projections pushing it toward $17 billion by 2030. While growth has moderated since the pandemic surge, meal kits are carving out a stable niche in the American food economy, serving up convenience, variety, and increasingly, wellness.
As food, health, and convenience continue to intersect, the U.S. meal kit market reveals itself not as a fleeting trend, but as a nuanced behavioral signal. According to our recent study conducted through Leger’s Health & Wellness Community, nearly 1 in 4 individuals currently use meal kit services, and even more have experimented with them in the past.
Beneath this lies a complex consumer story about evolving needs, shifting values, and untapped opportunity, particularly in the areas of gut health, emotional well-being, and everyday simplicity.
Who's Using Meal Kits and Who’s Still on the Sidelines?
While nearly one-quarter of consumers in Leger’s Health & Wellness Community have an active relationship with meal kit services, either as Routine Loyalists who use them regularly or Convenience Dabblers who dip in as needed, more than half remain part of the Untapped Majority, having never tried a meal kit at all. This gap highlights that there’s clear room to expand and new audiences to reach.
The next phase of meal kit growth will depend on knowing not just who’s buying, but who’s not, and why. Through smarter segmentation and behavioral insight, brands can move beyond broad awareness to precisely target time-starved parents, health-conscious singles, older adults seeking simplicity, and other emerging segments. Because winning in the meal kit space isn’t just about scale—it’s about relevance.
Why Consumers Choose Meal Kits: Wellness Without the Effort
Consumers consistently turn to meal kits for familiar reasons: ease, convenience, and time savings. But embedded in these behaviors is a deeper motivation, a desire to eat healthier without the added mental load of planning, shopping, or decision-making.
Notably, “healthy” and “ingredients” rank among the top reasons for use. This marks a subtle but meaningful shift: meal kits are no longer just quick fixes; they’re becoming intentional wellness tools, helping consumers feel better physically and emotionally.
This repositions meal kits from being simply time-savers to being low-lift health allies. Brands that can tap into broader wellness narratives, like energy, immunity, or gut health, can potentially unlock emotional relevance that goes well beyond convenience.
Gut Health: A Growing Priority and a Rising Point of Differentiation
Consumers are increasingly aware of how food affects not just digestion, but mood, energy, and overall well-being. In The Gut Shift: The Rise of Holistic Digestive Wellness, gut health is recognized as essential to overall health, and many people are actively trying to improve it—making digestive wellness one of the most proactive and personal areas of health today.
Some meal kit brands are beginning to respond. HelloFresh recently partnered with Nature Made to offer limited-edition Gut-Friendly meal kits featuring fiber-forward recipes. Green Chef has introduced a Gut & Brain Health menu as part of its wellness lineup. Still, for most brands, digestive wellness remains an emerging pillar of value. While consumers are already seeking foods that support how they feel, meal kits have yet to consistently integrate gut health into their core positioning.
Turning Meal Kits Into Meaningful Wellness Tools
The future of meal kits lies not just in simplifying dinner, but in supporting how people feel—physically, mentally, and emotionally. As consumers look for ways to optimize their lives with less effort, meal kits have the potential to evolve into deeply personal wellness companions, offering gut-friendly, mood-boosting, immunity-supporting meals that meet today’s demand for both function and flavor.
To unlock this next wave of growth, brands must shift from mass appeal to meaningful segmentation, crafting offerings that resonate with the evolving needs of diverse life stages and health journeys.
Let’s Dig In: How Can Your Brand Grow in the Meal Kit Era?
We help brands uncover the drivers behind health and food choices, whether it’s segmenting emerging audiences, testing new offerings, or exploring the emotional triggers of adoption. Through IDEAvate360, we help you generate, refine, and validate innovation ideas quickly.
Looking to create the next generation of wellness-driven meal kits? Discover how IDEAvate360 can help.
