A subscription service making it easier to do our bit when it comes to reducing food waste sounds hugely appealing, so, how does it work?
First, choose the Oddbox option that best suits your needs – you can opt to receive a box of vegetables, a box of fruit, or a mix of both. You can also choose from a range of box sizes (although the fruit option is only available in one size). We opted for the mixed box in the small size, which comes with seven kinds of vegetables and three types of fruit.
Keep in mind that the box contents will be different with each delivery, so you can welcome some spontaneity into the kitchen. We like the idea of shaking up our weekly meal rotation depending on whatever fresh goodies are set to arrive, but you can exclude up to three items, or a food group, if you know you’ll never want to use it. Also, since we tried our box, Oddbox has become more flexible. The “pick your own” feature means you can now swap out as many items as you want from your box with something from that week’s rescue list (this isn’t available for the fruit box yet, which currently lets you swap out up to three items). You can also add extras to your order if you’d like but this will bump up the overall price.
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So, what was actually in our box? In addition to one recipe, intel on where everything had come from and why, there was a good bulk of potatoes (about 800g), a bag of Brussels sprouts (275g), one aubergine, one squash, a two-pack of pak choi, six carrots and four parsnips. As for the fruit varieties, we got six clementines, six pears and one melon. Whether this is enough for you will depend on the size of your household and whether or not you’re planning to supplement the items.
Yes, some of the fruit and vegetables were slightly less uniform than we’re used to seeing at the supermarket but, beyond that, there was nothing odd about the quality. From the squash that we whipped up into a warming autumnal soup to the (rather small) pears, everything we ate was fresh and met our expectations in terms of taste.
The packaging was a breath of fresh air, too, seeing as we’re so used to the sea of plastic in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket. The whole lot arrived in a recyclable cardboard box, and, as Oddbox only uses packaging where necessary, the only plastic in our box was for the pak choi, which would have been wrapped before Oddbox rescued it.
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How the fruit and vegetables are delivered to your door has been considered when it comes to reducing the company’s carbon footprint. So, the boxes are delivered overnight, which, in theory, means the drivers spend less time on the roads. While UK produce is the focus for Oddbox, when anything is imported, it won’t have travelled by air.
As for whether the box we tried is good value for money, the subscription to a small fruit and vegetables box will set you back £14.99 per delivery, which we think is pretty good going, particularly when factoring in how convenient it is to have a little less on your shopping list, the quality of the produce, and the fact you’re playing a part in reducing food waste with every box.
