Order cut-off is THREE DAYS before your delivery i.e. cut off is Saturday for a Tuesday delivery!

FAQ / Contact Us

For any inquiries not answered by our website, or if your inquiry is urgent, please send us an e-mail.

TIP: searching for a specific thing? Try pressing 'Ctrl F' on your keyboard and typing a word that narrows down what you're looking for, i.e. "recipes" and you can to jump straight to all the results with that keyword on this page quickly.

Quick Links:

- Menu/Ingredient/Recipes

- 'Zero Waste' and our Reuse Cycle

- Ordering

- Subscriptions

- Delivery Days, Zones, and Collection

Menu, Ingredients, Nutrition & Recipes

  • Which recipes will I get in my box?
Preset Boxes: The Treat Yourself & Date Night boxes will always receive recipes 1, 2 and 3. The Self Love and Couple Goals Box will always receive recipes 1, 2, 3, and 4. These boxes contain 2 or 4 portions per recipe. The Everything Box includes all 5 recipes, with 1, 2 or 4 portions per recipe.
Box Creators: If you want to change your recipes you need to order a Box Creator. You can subscribe to the Box Creators, but you need to email us at least 48 hours in advance of your delivery day if you want to change the recipes in your box. These boxes can contain 1, 2, 3 or 4 different recipes, with 2 or 4 portions of each recipe.
  • What staples do I need to have in my pantry?

We include almost everything you need in our boxes, except a few basics, some optional. We recommend having the following in your pantry:

- Oil - olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, sesame oil, peanut oil and coconut oil are our most recommended oils, but you can always substitute your preferred oil into any recipe- or omit it altogether if you prefer!
- Salt & pepper - we tend to under-season our meals just a little, because everyone's salt preference is different, and it's easy to add extra when cooking, but hard to remove if there's too much! Our recipe cards tell you when to add seasoning when you're cooking, so if you follow the recipe you should end up with a well seasoned meal.
- Cheese (optional) - vegan cheese, or any cheese, is always a nice-to-have topping
- Chili (optional) - chili oil/crisp/powder/sauce, if you like your meals a bit more spicy. We keep our spice levels low because we know not everyone is keen on chili, and it's much easier to add spice when serving than it is to lower it.
TIP: You can purchase most of the above ingredients (and many others) as add-ons to your box from our Pantry & Produce Section!

  • Is everything plant based or vegan?
Yes! Our recipes are completely 100% free from all animal products! And yes, when we say plant based we do also mean vegan! None of our recipes contain any of the following: meat or meat products, poultry, seafood, shellfish, dairy products, eggs, honey, or other insect products. It's all plants all the way down baby! We’re using a wide variety of vegetables, legumes, fruits, and other locally sourced, minimally processed ingredients to create our delicious, nutritious recipes each week. We do occasionally use ingredients such as Organic, GMO free Tonzu Tofu, dried TVP granules (soy protein), and Harmless Food Co's Harmless 'Chicken' (a plant based 'chicken' alternative) to add extra nutrition and variety to our recipes. We create a few of our own ‘dairy alternatives’ for our recipes too, so you will occasionally see terms like “cream” or “parmesan” used to describe these – but don’t worry, they are 100% vegan!
  • Do you use any allergens in your kitchen?
Yes, we use some common allergens in our kitchen, so there is a small risk of any food containing the following: gluten, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame & sulphites. Allergens are listed in bold in our recipes ingredients lists. We do take great care to avoid cross contamination between recipes by ensuring we clean the kitchen areas, utensils and washing hands thoroughly, following strict hygiene practices, but there is always going to be a small risk, especially as many ingredients we buy are processed on the same equipment as allergens before they are sent to us. 
  • How do I tell if an ingredient is in a sauce, or if it's just an additional topping/item I can avoid if I want to?
On the Ingredients page each recipe has all its ingredients listed fully, including spices. The ingredients in sauces are listed in brackets after the name of the sauce, so you can see which ingredients are in which sauces, or if they are a fresh/separate item:
i.e. Ingredients: Sauce Name (sauce ingredient, bolded allergen in the brackets means it is in the sauce), Topping Jar (ingredients in topping in brackets), fresh produce: fresh vegetables, fruits etc.
  • Can I alter the ingredients in my recipes?
Some of them! All our recipes feature our house-made prepared sauces, dips and dressings, all made within 24 hours of your delivery. Because we are batch cooking everyone's sauces, we aren't able to alter any sauce ingredients. We recommend anyone with any allergies or dietary preferences to check the menu Ingredients Lists and order a Box Creator, choosing the recipes they can eat without changing any ingredients. If you want to swap a particular component, this may be possible with our Swap Request option if that component is a dry ingredient or fresh produce item in the recipe.
  • Which recipes can be made Gluten Free?
All Yum Jar recipes have a gluten free option available! Just choose the 'Gluten Free' option before adding the box to your cart. For our Set Menu Boxes this is available in the drop down menu on the product page, for the Box Creators the gluten free option is a separate product). None of our premade/cooked sauces ever contain gluten. We package any gluten-containing dry products (i.e. pasta, breadcrumbs, noodles) very carefully and separately to everything else in order to avoid cross contamination. If you order a gluten free box, it should have a 'Gluten Free' stamp on the top when you receive it, and any ingredients in a jar with a gluten free variant will have a sticker with 'GF' on them. If you're not sure, please email us with a photo of your ingredient to check.
  • Where do you get your ingredients?
We are buying everything for our meal boxes from local, NZ owned businesses! Our produce comes from a variety of NZ growers mostly based in the lower North Island, and is collected freshly picked from the farmers and delivered to us by Capital Produce, usually on the same day. Most of our dry goods come from Davis Trading Co in Petone. We also buy direct from other homegrown NZ producers like Hands Down Tortillas, TONZU, Raglan Food Co, and Fix & Fogg.
    • Is your food Coeliac-safe?

    All of our meals have a Gluten Free option. There is no gluten used in any of our pre-prepared sauces/dips/dressing. We store and package all gluten containing products separately and carefully, so the contamination risk is as low as possible. 

    As much as we are extremely careful, we cannot completely guarantee all products we buy are completely risk free. Some bulk products we buy may have been processed before entering our kitchen on machines that while also carefully cleaned between use, may have processed gluten.

    • Is your food Organic?

    Short answer: No. Long answer: while we do buy some organic goods, we don't do it as a rule. We want to keep Yum Jar accessible and affordable, and going 100% organic would come with a significant price increase to our boxes.

    • How long does the food in my meal box last?

    Each box's meal components all have a safe-to-eat lifespan of up to 1 week from delivery, if all the ingredients have been stored correctly. Please read our Meal Box Instructions for info on how to store your ingredients.

    • How long do the recipes take to cook?

    All our recipes are designed to take the average home cook with basic skills and equipment less than 45 minutes from box to plate! We include freshly prepared sauces and toppings (all made within 24 hours of your box delivery) in our meal boxes to greatly simplify and speed up the process.

    • I'm pregnant, is your food safe for me and my baby?

    Most of our food will be completely fine for pregnant people. Plant Based diets are in general far less risky than diets containing meat or dairy products. Our precooked sauces will be safe for you to eat as long as the ones that require heating are heated to above 75 degrees Celsius, for at least 2 minutes. The only possible things to look out for might be coconut cream and coconut yoghurt, which we would recommend you eat within 3-4 days of the box delivery, and anything containing tahini, which presents a risk if uncooked. We would also definitely recommend washing all your veggies well, but we hope everyone does that anyway! Our products are not specifically designed for pregnant people, so we recommend you seek advice from your GP for more specific health information.

    • Can I freeze my sauces?

    Yes! Most of our sauces will be fine to freeze for up to 2 months, and to eat once thawed and then reheated to above 75 degrees Celsius for more than 2 minutes*. When freezing, please transfer the sauce to a container other than our glass jars, as these may break in the freezer. Make sure you freeze things before 1 week from their delivery! We also recommend consuming everything within 1 month of freezing. If you're unsure about what to/not freeze, just email us!
    *If the original recipe did not say to heat the sauce, do not heat it, just thaw completely.

    How does your reuse system work?

    • What do you mean by "Zero Waste"?

    At Yum Jar we are determined to help our customers reduce their waste, so we have created a zero waste reuse cycle, a 'circular economy' that is super easy to follow, and comes at no extra cost to you. We reuse all our glass jar containers, our ice-packs and cardboard trays, and our cardboard boxes for as long as they are still in good condition! All you have to do is remember to leave your previous box outside for collection with the empty, clean jars, lids, icepacks (defrosted), and the ice-pack tray, when your next order is being delivered. You'll be amazed at how much you can reduce your household rubbish and recycling!

    • What about in the kitchen? You must make some waste there..

    We're buying everything we can in bulk in our kitchen to reduce packaging, returning containers to suppliers, and avoiding plastics and packaging that cannot be recycled as much as we can. The waste created is mostly things legally required in running a commercial kitchen, which we are always looking for better solutions for. We are sending all our compost to the council compost through Organic Waste Management, recycling all our paper/cardboard/tins/aluminum and #1, #2 & #5 plastics. We are washing, drying, saving and sending all our soft plastics to the soft plastic reuse scheme, and we take all our bottle caps and rusty/broken jar lids to the Sustainability Trust. Any occasional broken glass we take to the glass recycling ourselves so it doesn't just go to landfill. And we don't recycle what we can just reuse! The result: We send less than 1kg of landfill per 1000 meals sent out to customers per week! We'd call that a big win for us, the planet, and you!

        • How do you safely and hygienically reuse the jars?

        When we receive empty jars back from our customers, regardless of how clean they look, they are all hand-washed in the sink by our hard-working team, put through our large commercial dishwasher, and thoroughly sanitized to ensure they are safe for re-use. They are then sorted by hand into size categories, so they get an extra check from our staff before being put on the shelf. Because we have thousands to wash each week, we do ask that all customers thoroughly wash all their jars and lids with hot water and cleaning detergent before returning them to us, to remove any residue. This reduces our washing time significantly and makes it a lot safer (and less messy) for our staff.

        • Can you collect my jars if I’m not ordering this week?

        Yes! But if you are only away for a short while and intend to reorder soon, please hold onto your jars for that time. If you aren't ordering again in the near future you can order a Jar Collection, however we have limited capacity for these each week and this costs $5-10 to cover the driver's time (depending on your delivery zone). Alternatively you can drop them off at our kitchen (25 Cairns St, Rongotai). If you are ordering a meal box you do not need to request a jar collection for the same week, just remember to put out your empty box of jars on your doorstep on the delivery day for us to collect them.

        • Can I donate other jars or ice-packs to you?

        Yes and no. We will collect other jars and icepacks if you put them in your box before you return it to us - but please make sure they are usable, clean jars, lids, and icepacks only - we aren't a recycling service! Also, as we have a surplus of some sizes: please read the details on the Jar Collection page for what we do/don't use before donating! 

        Ordering Info

        • What's the cut-off for ordering?

        Order cut off time is 3 days before your chosen delivery day:
        - midnight Saturday night at the latest for a Tuesday delivery
        - midnight Monday night at the latest for a Thursday delivery

        This cut-off time is also the latest time you can:
        - add products to an existing order
        - change your recipes (box creators only)
        - cancel your order and receive a full refund.

        If you want to make a late order, change, or cancellation please get in touch with us via email and we will see what we can do.

        • Do I have to Subscribe?

        No, subscriptions are not mandatory! However, if you choose to subscribe, you will receive a 5% discount on your order and each continued order in the same subscription, but you must pay for at least 2 deliveries at minimum before editing/changing/cancelling your order. If you need to change your subscription before this time, just get in touch with us via email and we will see what we can do.

        For all other subscription information, head over to the Subscription FAQs page!

        • How do I add a product to my order without paying another delivery fee?

        Use the discount code ADDTOMEALBOX at the checkout. This code is only to be used in these circumstances. We will contact you if this code is used incorrectly i.e. to avoid paying a shipping fee at all. We are a small business trying to both keep things affordable for customers and make ends meet in a tough economy, while paying our staff a living wage, so please do not use the code unless you have paid a shipping fee on the other part of your order. 

        • How much does it cost per meal?

        It varies, but as a rule, the bigger the box, the cheaper per meal it becomes. All meal boxes have their prices listed at the top of their descriptions. 

        Bigger family or household? Going on a group trip and need easy meal prep for more than 4 people? You are absolutely welcome to order multiple meal boxes depending on your household's needs.

        • My preferred option says "Sold Out"

        If everything on the website is "Sold Out" that means we have reached our order capacity for the week and closed our orders.
        If you’re after something that is "Sold Out" on your preferred delivery day, but other days/products are available, just email us about it - we may be able to help and get your order in on the day you would like.

        • I live outside your delivery zone! Can I still order?

        Provided you can collect your order from our Rongotai kitchen, you can definitely order from us! See the Delivery/Collection page for more info. If you cannot collect your box and your address isn't too far outside of our Delivery Zones, email us anyway and we will see what we can do!

        • Can I cancel my order?

        Yes, to cancel your order, please email us. Cancellations requested at least 48 hours (i.e. 3 days) before the delivery day will receive a full refund. After this time, cancellations may not be able to be fully refunded, but just get in touch and we will figure out the best possible option.

        • How do I change my Address/Phone Details?

        To change your Address or Phone Number, log into your account, and click the "View Addresses" button displayed below your address. Click "Edit" button below the the address you want to change. Edit the Address or Phone number. Check the "Set as default address button", and then "Update Address". Please make sure to delete any old addresses from your account if they are no longer needed. Important: If you have a subscription you need to go into your subscription to edit your address as well or the subscription will use your old address! Also, if an order has been paid for with your old address details but you will no longer be at that address on the delivery day, you will need to let us know about the change or we won't know about it!

        • How do I know my card details are secure?

        When you purchase by credit or debit card our website directs you to Stripe processing to take your details. The only thing our system retains are your profile details, the rest is secure in the banking system. Once your purchase is approved you will be brought back to the Yum Jar website. Your order needs to come back for it to be confirmed and for both of us to receive notification of your order.