Sustainability

Why choosing Hello Chef helps contribute to a healthier, happier planet.

Did you know?

One third of the food produced for human consumption worldwide¹ is lost or wasted every year. For the UAE, this costs the nation AED 13 billion ($3.5bn) annually, according to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE). But this is only half of the problem. Food that is wasted ends up in landfill where it produces methane - a harmful greenhouse gas. This is said to be 25 times² more harmful than CO2. For context, if food waste were a country³, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally, behind China and the USA.

Tackling food waste

The detrimental impact of food waste on the environment is often misconceptualised in place of tangible factors, such as plastic and packaging. Though not to discredit the environmental impact of these elements, results from a US-based study indicate that the average meal sourced from a grocery store is responsible for 33% more greenhouse gas emissions⁴ than an equivalent dish from a meal kit. This is largely due to meal kits providing pre-measured ingredients, thereby producing less food waste.

Recycling at Hello Chef

While we continue working on our mission to source eco-friendly packaging solutions, we’ve partnered with a local waste management provider – Imdaad - to enhance our recycling efforts.

We encourage our customers to rinse all plastic sachets and containers and place them back into their Hello Chef box, before handing it back to our delivery driver when they receive their next order.

The returned plastic (and cardboard) is then collected by Imdaad on a weekly basis and recycled at their facility.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Hello Chef use so much plastic?

Here at Hello Chef, one of our top priorities is making sure your ingredients arrive fresh and safe in the most environmentally responsible packaging available. To achieve this, the use of plastic is still necessary today. However, we agree there is much room for improvement and are continually monitoring our plastic use. We’re also working closely with suppliers to come up with innovative ways to achieve our freshness and safety goals while reducing plastic use.

What is Hello Chef doing to limit its impact on the environment?

We don’t claim to be doing enough – we know that significant changes are necessary. We’re constantly taking steps to lower our environmental footprint and our team is building momentum in this area. Since we started the business in 2015, these are the things we have achieved to date:

Helping our customers to lower food waste by providing pre-portioned ingredients: by using meal kits, on average, avoidable food waste is significantly reduced (2015)
Doing away with delivery bags with plastic lining and using recyclable delivery boxes instead (2016)
We have designed our delivery service with efficiencies in mind that save you a trip to the supermarket and at the same time, your food gets a shared ride to your home, which lowers its overall carbon footprint (2017)
Transitioning from plastic recipe bags to recyclable recipe boxes (2017)
Working with our delivery partner to pick up old/used delivery boxes and have them recycled on behalf of our customers. To date, we’ve recycled tens of thousands of boxes this way (2017)
As much as possible, we aim to buy local produce and have always supported this with our efforts in working with UAE businesses that produce locally, such as Kinoko, Al Khazna, Coco Yogo and Smart Gourmet. We also indirectly source a significant amount of produce through our main produce suppliers (2019)
Moving from plastic spice containers to spice sachets with far less plastic (2020)
Moving from plastic pasta packaging to mostly paper (2020)
All food waste that is still edible is donated weekly to the Dubai Municipality Food Bank who provide it for people in need. This further reduces the environmental impact of our own internal operations. To date, we’re proud to say we’ve donated well over AED 75,000 worth of food, and continue to do so (2020)