Dinner unboxed
The Food Chain
BBC
4.7 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Meal kits have become a familiar part of food shopping in many countries, offering pre-portioned ingredients and recipes delivered to the door. But how widespread are they, and what do they reveal about how people are eating today?
Ruth Alexander hears from Philip Doran, CEO of HelloFresh UK and Ireland, and Sarah Hewitt, CEO of South African meal kit company UCOOK, about how these services operate in very different markets.
She also speaks to Dr Rebecca Bennett, a food systems researcher, about what meal kits say about changing cooking habits and online food platforms, and to market analyst Nandini Roy on how big the global meal kit industry is and where future growth may come from.
Producer: Izzy Greenfield Sound engineer: Hal Haines
If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk
Image: A woman unpacks a box full of food (credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:09.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC |
| 0:13.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry. |
| 0:17.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, your dead to me is available first on BBC Sounds, |
| 0:26.3 | a whole month earlier than anywhere else, in fact. So if you can't wait another day to hear the very |
| 0:31.6 | latest in history and loads of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.3 | Okay, so tonight for dinner, we are having the vegetable and keemois curry with toasted coconut |
| 0:45.5 | and lime. It's saying it's going to take 40 minutes. So I hope it doesn't actually take |
| 0:51.0 | 40 minutes because I'm in a bit of a rush. The meal Rebecca Bennett's rustling up for her family in Melbourne, Australia, |
| 0:58.2 | hasn't come from a shop. |
| 0:59.7 | It's from a meal kit she ordered online and had delivered to her door. |
| 1:04.5 | Let's have a look there. |
| 1:07.8 | So we have a nice big red capsicum. |
| 1:12.9 | Oh, coriander, some kale, coconut. |
| 1:18.6 | Rebecca is one of millions of people around the globe |
| 1:21.1 | who are using recipe kit subscriptions |
| 1:23.2 | to outsource meal time shopping, planning and prep. |
| 1:27.6 | Okay, so I'll chop these up pretty small. |
| 1:35.2 | Okay. |
| 1:43.1 | Okay. |
| 1:50.6 | Okay, I was getting there. We're almost done. Oh, it's been a big day. |
... |
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