Meal kit dietary commitments, compared
How far does each UK meal box actually go for each diet? This is every brand's own commitment — a dedicated range, a filter, or nothing — in their own words, with a link to where they say it.
Last checked 2026-08-05 · we re-verify periodicallyImportant: a "Gluten-free" label reflects a recipe's ingredients, not a coeliac-safe kitchen. None of these vendors claims a dedicated free-from facility — all run shared kitchens/packing, so meals are not guaranteed safe for coeliacs or severe allergies. Always confirm with the vendor before ordering. Every claim below is the vendor's own wording with a source link; a "couldn't verify" cell means their site blocked us, not that we guessed.
| Vendor | Gluten-free | Dairy-free | Vegan | Vegetarian | Nut-free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gousto | Labelled recipes“around 30% of our weekly menu is gluten-free”source ↗ | Labelled recipes“around 40% of our weekly menu is dairy-free”source ↗ | Labelled recipes“over 75 plant-based dishes each month”source ↗ | Labelled recipes“185 vegan and vegetarian options combined”Combined vegan + vegetarian total; separate veggie count not stated.source ↗ | Not statedNo nut-free range or verbatim statement found; allergen labelling is per-recipe only. Not verified. |
| HelloFresh | Not statedAllergen & special-diets pages redirect to a postcode gate — no GF policy text was reachable even in a real browser.source ↗ | Not statedAllergen page gated behind the postcode/ordering flow.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Vegan”"Vegan" appears as a selectable plan preference in the site's own data; the full allergen policy itself is behind the postcode gate.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Make meat-free meals easy and delicious, with six vegetarian options every week.”source ↗ | Not statedAllergen policy inaccessible — page gated by the postcode flow.source ↗ |
| Pasta Evangelists | Not catered“Click below to access the relevant allergen information depending on where you are dining with Pasta Evangelists today.”A fresh wheat-pasta brand; no gluten-free claim found. The allergens page is a navigation hub only — the detail sits behind the ordering system.source ↗ | Not statedAllergens page links out to the ordering system; no dietary statement recovered.source ↗ | Not statedAllergen detail behind the ordering flow — not recovered.source ↗ | Not statedAllergen detail behind the ordering flow — not recovered.source ↗ | Not statedAllergen detail behind the ordering flow — not recovered.source ↗ |
| Green Chef | Not catered“Unfortunately, we don't yet cater for gluten-free diets. Although some of our recipes each week are suitable for individuals following a gluten-free diet we leave it up to our customers to decide if that particular recipe is suitable for their dietary requiremets.”Green Chef's own words — they do not offer gluten-free as a preference (their spelling of "requiremets").source ↗ | Filter to avoid“All our vegan ingredients are free from animal products such as meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and bee products. We work closely with our suppliers to ensure that there is no risk of cross contamination from animal by-products in ingredients used for vegan recipes.”No dedicated dairy-free plan — dairy-free is achievable only via the Vegan preference.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Vegan (Plant-based dishes rich in fibre, minerals, and nutrients)”Dedicated vegan plan preference; suppliers checked for no animal by-product cross-contamination.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Vegetarian (Tasty fusion dishes with high-quality dairy, leafy greens, and plant protein)”source ↗ | Not catered“Our boxes and ingredients are packed in a facility that handles peanut, nuts, sesame, fish, crustaceans, milk, egg, mustard, celery, soya, gluten and sulphites.”Shared facility — nut-free cannot be guaranteed.source ↗ |
| Grubby | Not statedPlant-based, but uses wheat/oats/barley/rye across the menu; allergen filter lets you avoid them. No coeliac-safe claim.source ↗ | Whole brand“100% vegan”Entirely plant-based brand — no dairy by definition.source ↗ | Whole brand“100% vegan”source ↗ | Whole brand“100% vegan”All meals are vegetarian by definition (100% plant-based).source ↗ | Not statedPeanuts & tree nuts appear in the allergen filter, so they can be avoided; no dedicated nut-free guarantee.source ↗ |
| Mindful Chef | Labelled recipes“This recipe contains gluten. We recently introduced recipes containing gluten to the menu.”Was gluten-free by default; now you must filter for GF. Opt-in warning shown on non-GF recipes. Not coeliac-safe.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Gluten-free, plant based and flexitarian recipe choices”Dairy-free filter on the recipe page.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Gluten-free, plant based and flexitarian recipe choices”source ↗ | Not statedVegetarian filter present on the recipe selection page.source ↗ | Not statedNut-free filter present; no coeliac-style cross-contamination caveat found.source ↗ |
| Riverford | Labelled recipes“265 gluten-free recipes”Recipe archive filter (Riverford is an organic veg-box, not a fixed weekly meal-kit).source ↗ | Labelled recipes“all without any dairy ingredients”1,169 recipes on the dairy-free filter.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“794 vegan recipes”source ↗ | Labelled recipes“1,778 vegetarian recipes”source ↗ | Not statedNo nut-free filter offered (dietary filters are GF, DF, vegan, vegetarian only).source ↗ |
| Abel & Cole | Labelled recipes“Gluten-free bakery”GF filter + a gluten-free bakery range; no coeliac-safe claim.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Dairy alternatives”Dairy-free filter + dairy-alternatives range.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Free from & vegan”Dedicated 'Free from & vegan' section.source ↗ | Labelled recipes“Vegetarians”source ↗ | Not catered“Abel & Cole handles celery, celeriac, peanuts and nuts. Due to our packing process and re-use of boxes there is a risk of cross-contamination from these allergens.”Explicit warning — nut-free CANNOT be guaranteed.source ↗ |
| SimplyCook | Not statedSimplyCook's site hard-blocks automated reads (HTTP 403) even via a real browser, so no wording was retrievable. It's a flavour-kit brand (you supply your own food), so its dietary framing differs anyway.source ↗ | Not statedSite blocked (403).source ↗ | Not statedSite blocked (403).source ↗ | Not statedSite blocked (403).source ↗ | Not statedSite blocked (403).source ↗ |
What the labels mean
- Whole brand The entire brand inherently meets this diet by definition (e.g. an all-vegan box).
- Labelled recipes The vendor tags/filters recipes for this diet, but it is not a dedicated facility.
- Filter to avoid No dedicated diet range — you can only filter the allergen out / swap ingredients.
- Not catered Not offered, or the vendor actively warns it cannot be guaranteed (cross-contamination).
- Not stated The vendor publishes no human-readable statement we could quote for this diet. A recipe filter may still exist on their site — we just won't grade a commitment we can't quote.