Meal plans in style: Nevera Llena targets busy eaters with home delivery dinner kits

15 Jun 2020 --- For busy customers seeking to save time on weekly food purchases and preparation, a little fridge organization can go a long way. Nevera Llena, Spanish for “Full Fridge,” is a home delivery service that brings 14 custom-prepared, pre-cooked meals straight to consumers’ doorstep. The recyclable cardboard box stores each meal in a tight cubbyhole to prevent spillage and facilitate a comprehensive weekly meal overview. Moreover, each meal tray is color-coded and labeled with specific nutritional information.

“Nevera Llena is not just food delivered to your home to save time: it is a tailored solution for a society that lives in a rush and does not pay attention to one of the essential elements of life, the food we eat,” Project Co-Designer Andrés Guerrero tells PackagingInsights.

“Nevera Llena started with a concern. The children of one of the company partners were studying far from home and their parents were concerned about the quality of their diet. This was the starting point for a market study that analyzed a sample of several groups, not only university students, but also, among others, workers that used to have their meals away from home,” he explains.Nevera Llena is a tailored solution for a society that does not pay attention to the food we eat, says Guerrero.

The market study also included the weekly time spent in buying food, travel and purchase costs, the processing times at home, and the amount of wasted or thrown-away food. The analysts affirmed that this is one of the most significant problems of consumption in the countries of the first world.

This aligns with Innova Market Insights’ fourth trend for 2020, “The Right Bite.” The market researcher has taken note of how consumers managing careers, families and social lives while striving to maintain healthy lifestyles have raised the demand for nutritious foods that are easy to prepare, convenient and portable. 

The blueprint of the black box
The Nevera Llena set provides 14 trays, carrying lunch and dinner for seven days. “We carefully considered the dimensions of the trays proposed by our client – since they were standard – and the way we could safely and effectively organize them for shipment. We also had in mind the need to accommodate these trays in the fridge without having to discard the shipping box but, instead, using it as an organizing element inside the refrigerator.”

The center cubbyhole offers space for additional nutritional information.From trays to the shipping package, all materials are recyclable, Nevera Llena Co-Creator and Guerrero’s colleague Rodrigo Fonseca also tells PackagingInsights. Mindful that the meal packages would be designed for shipment in refrigerated trucks, the designers chose cardboard to prevent wetness and possible spills. The inner cubicles were also sized to accommodate the trays and prevent them from sliding within the package.

On the exterior of the fridge-in-a-fridge, the box is printed in black as a sign of “premium quality,” says Fonseca. “[It has] the look of a small fridge that arrived home with all your food ready and prepared, like the food containers you used to bring after visiting your mother on weekends.”

Premiumized, customized packaging has led to the burgeoning of the e-commerce sector. This is made evident by “Packing an e-Punch,” Innova Market Insights’ top third packaging trend for 2020. The packaging industry continues to capitalize on the brand enhancement opportunities that the e-commerce sector presents as well as consumers’ unboxing experience and so-called “wow factor” effects. 

Never Llena will be available in Spain and is sold exclusively online.“We are what we eat”
Guerrero and Fonseca were sure to try the three menus – meat, fish and vegetables – before designing their packaging. “We also had in mind that the food was homemade, handcrafted and of the highest quality. Nevera Llena works with nutritionists who elaborate menus according to specific nutritional needs, designed for various customer clusters.”

Not only is each tray labeled with each meal’s nutritional contents, but the center drawer opens up to an individual brochure containing the nutritional information of the dishes. NutritionInsight previously reported on how food delivery services such as Nevera Llena have rapidly become a flourishing option to healthy eating amid COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. 

Never Llena will be available in Spain and is sold exclusively online. “Nevera Llena does not pretend to give lessons, but only to analyze the reality we live in. It is ultimately an answer to a problem and a solution to a need. Nor is it another elegant product, but a concept designed and developed to improve food supply, meeting the demands of a new type of consumer,” Fonseca concludes.

By Anni Schleicher