Admittedly, meal prepping (and cooking in general) was never my strong suit. Figuring out what to cook during the week usually turns into placing an online takeout order. Not to mention I find it almost impossible to find time to cook after a full day of working at the office, running simple errands and going to the gym. To solve my cooking woes, I tried Factor (formerly known as Factory 75), a meal delivery service that offers low-effort, pre-made meals, for a week. Below, I outline my experience with Factor, including what to know about pricing, preparation, delivery schedules and menu options.
SKIP AHEAD How I tried Factor | My experience with Factor meal delivery | Who is Factor best for? | How does Factor compare to meal delivery service competitors?
What is Factor meal delivery service?
Factor is a meal delivery service that sends prepared meals that you can heat up in 10 minutes or less right to your doorstep. Instead of providing individual ingredients you need to prepare and cook yourself, Factor’s meals come pre-made and ready-to-eat — all you have to do is heat them up in your microwave or oven. In fact, at just 2 minutes in the microwave and about 7-10 minutes in the oven, the heat-up time is faster than any other prepared meal service I’ve tried. It also has one of the most vast menus I’ve seen in a service. Since the meals are fresh, not frozen, you can store them in your fridge and eat them within seven days, according to the brand.
The service has a rotating weekly menu of 35 meals you can choose from, and menus are available to view online whether you have a subscription or not. The meals cater to a number of dietary needs and preferences, including keto, paleo, low-carb, vegetarian, plant-based and high protein.
How I tried Factor
To try out the service, Factor sent me six meals that I chose from its weekly rotating menu (that changes every week):
- Shredded Chicken Taco Bowl
- Smoky BBQ Chicken Breast
- Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Risotto
- Shredded Chicken Thigh Cacciatore
- Herb Cream Cheese Salmon
- Fusilli and Ground Pork Tomato Ragu
Since I don’t have any dietary restrictions, choosing my meals was easy and straightforward. I received my meals on a Tuesday and tried them over the course of one week and heated them up in the oven (though you do have the option to heat them in the microwave, which cuts the cooking time by more than half). I placed two meal trays on a sheet pan (since each pre-made meal is a single serving, I made one for myself and another for my partner). At 350 degrees Fahrenheit, the dishes were ready to eat in 10 minutes, which cut my normal cooking time by over 30 minutes to an hour.
Since I was splitting the meals with my partner — which meant preparing two meals for dinner a day — I had enough meals for three nights.
My experience with Factor meal delivery
The week before my Factor shipment, I chose six meals from the brand’s menu, which is readily available online. The meal selection process is straightforward; the options are varied and range from very basic meals like a shredded chicken taco bowl to more intricate dishes like Louisiana-style shrimp.
Since I do not have any dietary restrictions or allergies, and I’m generally not a picky eater, I found it a bit overwhelming to choose just six meals from more than 30 meal options, especially when they all looked and sounded good. Not to mention there’s over 60 add-ons, which include snacks, breakfast items like pancakes, drinks like smoothies and additional proteins like salmon and sausage. On the flip side, the sheer number of offerings would be helpful for those who are picky eaters — there are a good variety of proteins, sides, veggies and meatless options.
When browsing the menu, I like that you can click on a meal and see detailed nutritional information like calories, cholesterol and sugar, any allergens, heating instructions and more. Seeing these details laid out, before I locked in my meals for the week, made the selection process easier, especially since I’m looking to meet specific health goals and intake a certain amount of protein and calories per day.
I live in a building that doesn’t have a package room or front desk, so perishable deliveries are typically tough for me. Most times, meal delivery boxes cannot get delivered when I’m not at my apartment, or they are placed in the wrong location (like on top of the heater, or in the building next door). However, that wasn’t the case with Factor at all — delivery was easy and stress-free; it arrived the day after I got the shipping notification, and the Factor box was delivered in good condition directly to my door rather than a random spot at my building’s entrance. This is something I’ve never had happen with any meal delivery I’ve tried before.
The meals are packed into an insulated, lunchbox-like container with an ice pack the size of my forearm, so the meals were cold when they arrived. (It helps that I tried this service during the colder winter months, but I could see this packaging holding up in the hot, summer months, too.) They came neatly stacked in the insulated box, which comfortably fit all six meals, so they did not fall over or move around during transit.
Each meal comes in a plastic container that looks like a combination of a to-go platter and a meal prep container. The main dish and sides are separated, which I appreciate so they don’t accidentally combine while I’m heating it up. To prepare the meals, I removed the film and placed them in the oven for 10 minutes, depending on how hot I wanted them. Admittedly, the meals didn’t look the prettiest in their container — though they aren’t frozen, they still look like they’ve been sitting for a while through the delivery process. However, when I actually tried the meals, any fears about the taste were entirely dispelled.
Simply put, the meals taste great. I was initially worried that because they’re pre-made, they would end up tasting like thawed airplane food. But the meals I tried actually tasted fresh, not old, stale or rubbery like other ready-to-eat meals I’ve tried in the past. The herb cream cheese salmon and the caramelized onion and goat cheese risotto, specifically, were my favorites, and they tasted like I had just cooked them myself.
The portions for each meal were perfect, in my experience; I found that there was more than enough food for my partner and I to split meals without leaving us feeling uncomfortably full. This is especially great for me since I struggle with portion control if I’m cooking meals on my own — since each meal comes with exactly a single-serving, I have a lot more self control when eating.
Perhaps most importantly, I wasn’t overwhelmed with what to make for dinner and consequently spent much less money on takeout orders. Though the service is on the more expensive side in terms of prepared meals (more on that below), it still beats paying for a $20 dish and delivery and tip.
Factor’s meals last for up to seven days in the fridge, and there is an “Enjoy By” date printed on each of the meal sleeves. Since the food isn’t frozen, I made sure to stay within that time frame, and the meals tasted fresh whether I prepared them on the first day I received them or on the seventh day.
Who is Factor best for?
The most obvious appeal of Factor is how much time and effort it saves. Those who are on a time crunch throughout the week will definitely benefit from the service since the meals are ready to eat in under 10 minutes, and it’s also great for those who simply don’t like to cook or aren’t too savvy in the kitchen.
What makes Factor work for most people is its range of weekly choices. As long as you’re diligent about checking the online meal cards, picky eaters and those with allergies should have an easy experience with Factor — each allergen is listed at the very top of the ingredients section for each meal.
If you have multiple mouths to feed, it may not be the best option — the meals are single-serve, so it’s ideal for a single-person household, in my opinion. If you have others in your household, Factor offers 12-, 14- and 18-meal weekly plans, but keep in mind you’ll be paying more per week. If you are just feeding yourself, the lowest number of meals per week you can receive is six, so you’ll be eating Factor meals for the majority of the week if you’re reserving them for dinner.
How does Factor compare to meal delivery competitors?
I’ve tried multiple pre-made meal delivery services and most are hit or miss — unlike meal kits, which send you ingredients for each recipe and you cook them yourself, prepared meal delivery services send them pre-made and ready to eat. Factor is one of the better prepared meal services I’ve tried because the food actually tastes fresh when I heat it up, rather than like it’s been sitting for a while.
In terms of pricing, Factor ($11 per meal) is consistent with some competitors like Cookunity ($11 per meal), but on the more expensive side compared to other services that offer prepared meal options, including Sunbasket ($10 per meal), Home Chef ($10 per meal) and Blue Apron ($10 per meal).
Factor was one of the only services that not only gave me no problem with delivery, but also arrived at the exact expected delivery date.
Most meal delivery services let you skip a week, and Factor is no different — you can easily skip deliveries via the service’s website as long as it’s before the weekly cutoff (noted on the “my menu” page when you’re signed into your account). It’s a handy feature if I’m traveling, going out to eat or simply have a different meal plan for the week.
One aspect that makes Factor unique is that it lets you schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation with a registered dietitian to answer questions about your nutrition and diet, including weight management, bulking up and diet revamps.
Ultimately, after trying Factor for a week I found myself less stressed about cooking and I spent significantly less money on takeout. It’s also great for my healthy eating resolution for the year: Each meal lets me track my protein intake, daily carbs and calories, and other health aspects for every meal, so I was eating healthier and feeling better throughout the week.
Why trust NBC Select?
Mili Godio is an updates editor at NBC Select who covers meal delivery extensively, including prepared, gluten-free and vegetarian meal delivery services. Godio tried Factor meal delivery for a week and considered the quality of the meals, delivery and packaging, preparing instructions and more.
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