Is HelloFresh Halal? What It Says, and Halal Swaps

HelloFresh isn’t halal. HelloFresh UK puts it plainly: “Some of our meat suppliers are certified Halal whilst others are not, so we are unable to guarantee a meal plan suitable for those following a Halal diet.” There’s no halal plan, you can’t request halal meat, and the same is true in every country HelloFresh operates in.

That doesn’t mean HelloFresh is useless for a Muslim household. Plenty of families use it by choosing vegetarian and fish recipes, or by keeping the recipe and swapping in meat from their own halal butcher. This guide explains what HelloFresh says, what the “some suppliers” problem means in Islamic law, and how to make a HelloFresh box work for you.

Quick answer

What HelloFresh actually says about halal

HelloFresh started in Berlin in November 2011, founded by Dominik Richter, Thomas Griesel and Jessica Nilsson. It now sells meal kits in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and much of Western Europe, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. At the end of 2022 it had about 7.1 million active customers.

Its UK FAQ is the clearest official statement we could find. There are two parts to it.

1. Suppliers are mixed. Some meat suppliers are halal certified and some aren’t. HelloFresh doesn’t label which supplier a given pack of chicken or beef came from.
2. No guarantee. Because of that, HelloFresh says it’s “unable to guarantee” a halal meal plan. It also says its suppliers and packing team handle a wide range of ingredients, so it can’t guarantee other diets like gluten free either.

We found no halal plan or halal option on HelloFresh’s sites in the US, Canada or Australia. Meal Kits Canada, which reviews Canadian meal kits, reports that HelloFresh Canada’s meat isn’t halal certified and that it doesn’t accept halal ingredient requests.

Our old version of this page said HelloFresh operated in South Africa. It doesn’t, and we’ve removed that section.

Why “some suppliers are halal” isn’t good enough

You might be thinking: if some of the chicken is halal, isn’t there a decent chance mine is? That’s exactly the kind of situation Islamic law has a rule for. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

“Both legal and illegal things are evident but in between them there are doubtful (suspicious) things and most of the people have no knowledge about them. So whoever saves himself from these suspicious things saves his religion and his honor.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 52)

A box where the meat might or might not be halal, with no label to tell you, is a textbook doubtful matter. Allah tells us to eat “from whatever is on earth that is lawful and good” (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:168). When you can’t tell, the scholars’ default is to avoid it.

There’s a second question: what about meat that isn’t halal certified but comes from a Christian country? The Quran says “the food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you” (Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:5).

• Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian scholar and former head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, read this broadly in The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam. On his view, ordinary supermarket meat in a Western country can be eaten unless you know it was killed in a forbidden way.
• Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, the Hanafi jurist and former judge on Pakistan’s Shariat Appellate Bench, disagrees in The Islamic Laws of Animal Slaughter. He argues the permission doesn’t cover industrial slaughter where the method, the tasmiyah and the person slaughtering are unknown.

Most halal certifiers, and most Muslims in the UK, North America and Australia, follow the stricter view. That’s why the practical answer is still: don’t rely on HelloFresh meat.

What’s in a HelloFresh box that Muslims should check

Meat isn’t the only thing to look at. Read the ingredient list on each recipe card before you pick it.

On alcohol, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Every intoxicant is Khamr and every intoxicant is forbidden” (Sahih Muslim 2003). Mirin and cooking wine are drinks made to intoxicate, and cooking doesn’t reliably remove all the alcohol, so most scholars say to avoid them.

Fish and seafood recipes

Fish recipes are the easiest way to keep meat in your HelloFresh box. Allah says:

“Lawful to you is game from the sea and its food.” (Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:96)

And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said of the sea: “Its water is pure and its dead are lawful” (Jami at-Tirmidhi 69).

Imam al-Nawawi, the Shafi’i jurist, sets out in al-Majmu’ the Shafi’i position that everything living only in the sea is lawful, which is why most Shafi’i, Maliki and Hanbali Muslims eat any HelloFresh seafood recipe. If you’re Hanafi, fish recipes are fine, prawns depend on your scholar, and mussels or crab are best left out. Read our full guide on whether prawns are halal.

How to use HelloFresh as a Muslim household

Here’s what readers who use HelloFresh tell us works.

1. Start with the vegetarian plan. HelloFresh has vegetarian recipes every week. Check each card for wine, cheese made with animal rennet and gelatin.
2. Choose fish recipes for variety. Fish is halal in all four schools.
3. Keep the recipe, swap the meat. Pick a chicken or beef recipe, remove the meat from your box (or don’t order it where that’s allowed), and buy the same cut from your halal butcher. You get the sauce, vegetables and recipe card, with meat you trust.
4. Remove pork recipes completely. Don’t just leave out the bacon. Sauces and stocks in those recipes may also contain pork.
5. Check the stock cubes and sauces. Chicken or beef stock may come from non halal meat. Swap for a vegetable stock if you’re unsure.
6. Store raw meat separately. HelloFresh packs everything in sealed packets, so cross contact in the box is small. Keep any non halal meat sealed and throw it away rather than cooking it.

Halal alternatives to HelloFresh

HelloFresh has no halal version, and neither do its sister brands Green Chef, EveryPlate, Factor, Chefs Plate and Youfoodz. There are smaller services built for halal eaters. Availability changes often, so check before you subscribe.

HMC is the Halal Monitoring Committee, a UK certifier known for requiring hand slaughter without stunning. If a service names HMC, HFA (Halal Food Authority) or another certifier and shows the certificate, that’s a good sign.

One more thing. In 2021, HelloFresh successfully opposed a UK trademark application by a company called Halal Fresh. The UK Intellectual Property Office agreed that shoppers could see “Halal Fresh” as linked to HelloFresh. So if you see “Halal Fresh” mentioned in older posts, it isn’t a HelloFresh halal range.