Yet Another Twist in Meal Delivery

Mosaic, a start up from two former execs at Blue Apron wants to change the game by offering direct to consumer meals that are frozen.

Mosaic is available with one-day delivery in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, the Washington D.C. area and parts of Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey.

Mosaic’s first offerings include six vegetarian bowls made with fresh ingredients. Mosaic cooks those ingredients via roasting, grilling or sauteing, and then freezes them. Each bowl comes with packaged sauces and garnishes. They range in price from $8.99 per meal to $12.49 per meal, depending on the size box you get. A four-meal box costs $12.49 per meal while a 12-meal box costs $8.99 per meal. Customers can subscribe for deliveries every one, two, four or eight weeks.

The company told TechCrunch that “We decided to do it because there’s so much potential in frozen food that’s untapped, there’s an opportunity to make amazing frozen foods.”They go on to say that,  “frozen food is an amazing way to work at scale, preserve food and reduce food waste.”  

The two co-founders may be starting a war – they say that the frozen foods available in the supermarket today are not really cooked. “Most frozen food is a bunch of veggies that are boiled but not roasted or seasoned. Our mantra is real ingredients, actual cooking using real techniques like ovens and seasoning, and rethinking the packaging food comes in. We’re reclaiming this category and we want to bring it back into good standing.”

What they don’t realize is that many frozen foods in today’s cases are vastly improved over what we would have found there ten years ago; and are much less expensive than the 9 to 12 dollars Mosaic’s bowls are priced at. I wish them all the best, and lots of luck, as I expect to see the frozen food companies – especially the new start ups – fight back hard – and the consumer interest to be mediocre at best. To have yet another meal kit delivery, rather than adding high quality frozen to their supermarket delivery, will be a hard sell.