Can Australian meal kits support food literacy and healthy family meal provisioning? A qualitative study

Cooking at home is a key recommendation to improve family nutrition. However, parents of young children face barriers to preparing healthy meals. Commercial meal kit subscription services (MKSSs) may support parents to overcome challenges and influence food literacy. This study explored how parents of young children (2-5 years) use MKSSs, examining how food literacy is supported and can be strengthened to promote healthy family meal provisioning. Twenty-five primary meal providers were recruited via social media (e.g. Facebook) for semi-structured interviews over phone or Zoom. Interviews were conducted with participants who had recently purchased meal kits from Australian MKSSs. Transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis followed by deductive mapping to a food literacy framework consisting of four domains (plan and manage, select, prepare, and eat). Three themes captured participants' meal kit use: (i) managing the complexities of feeding a family with young children, (ii) shifting the mental load, and (iii) broadening culinary horizons for all. Mapping of each theme to the four food literacy domains highlighted that meal kits primarily supported the 'plan and manage' and 'prepare' domains of family meal provisioning by alleviating pressures in the feeding of young children. The 'select' and 'eat' domains were less supported. These findings suggest while meal kits may support aspects of food literacy, further guidance on selecting nutritious meals, modifying recipes, involving children, and fostering mealtime practices could strengthen their impact on healthy family meal provisioning. Further research is needed to explore how meal kits could be leveraged to improve parental food literacy and family nutrition.