Update: truLOCAL is now available across Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia!
Learning about new Canadian companies is one of my favourite parts of being a blogger, so when truLOCAL reached out to me, I was excited to hear more. As some of you may know, I used to be vegan, and while I now eat fish and poultry, I remain aware of the importance of how food is sourced and some of the steps we can take to better treat our bodies, animals, and the planet. truLOCAL‘s guiding principles and business model are really appealing and I’m excited to share the experience of my first order. Read on for my complete truLOCAL review!
For those of you unfamiliar with truLOCAL (as I was!), they are a Canadian company offering monthly meat delivery plans of high-end locally sourced meat, fish, and poultry products. Their products are all:
- Free Run: Support humane animal treatment
- Local: All sourced from within Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia
- No Added Hormones and Antibiotic-Free: High quality and clean
Ordering Process
truLOCAL makes the ordering process quick and simple. From their “Get Started” button on the home page, you’re guided through a few key steps:
- First, choose your box size. truLOCAL offers a Small size box (which we ordered!) for $125 and a Regular size for $250. They provide some guidance with respect to the approximate number of people each box would be suitable for as well as order frequency. The Small box is great for those looking to dip their toe in the pond of meat delivery, while the Regular size provides better value.
- Next, choose your order frequency. truLOCAL provides a few different options, and while plans renew automatically, you can cancel at any time.
- Last (and my favourite part!), choose your cuts. truLOCAL uses a brilliant points system to make it easy to calculate what you can order, and they offer helpful descriptions of each cut. As you add items to your box, you’ll see the point values adjust accordingly.
We customized our box, entered our billing and shipping information, and checked out. An email confirmation let us know that the order was successfully placed and provided an expected shipping date.
Delivery and Packaging
One day after ordering, we received our delivery date confirmation and two business days later, it arrived right on schedule.
While the outer box is a traditional cardboard box, it protects a slightly smaller styrofoam box which contains the meat, kept cold through dry ice. truLOCAL provides a lot of guidance around how to dispose of it safely, and I left the open styrofoam box with the dry ice on the balcony for it to evaporate.
The meat is all packaged in vacuum-sealed packages, and well-labeled for easy identification. We put everything into the freezer and have been defrosting it one package at a time the day we plan to cook it.
We ordered:
- 2 x Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (2 orders of 2 = 4 chicken breasts)
- Wild Caught Icelandic Cod (3 fillets)
- Filet Mignon (1 steak)
- Ground Turkey (1 package)Be sure to defrost your meat and fish on a plate! I didn’t do that, and there was some leakage in addition to the condensation. truLOCAL provided that guidance in their delivery confirmation, I just missed it!
Quality
For our first meal, we cooked the ground turkey for taco night. The turkey itself was a lot less pink than it is at the grocery store, reminding me how some grocers inject their meat with food colouring so that it looks more vibrant. It cooked evenly and easily, and we really enjoyed the flavour it brought to the tacos.
Night two, we made basil chicken with mashed potatoes and carrots. The chicken breasts were quite large and tasted delicious. They were way more dense and less watery than normal chicken breasts, making the meal heartier.
Value
As those of you who buy premium meats will know, quality often comes with a higher price tag.
I did some analysis by comparing the cost of a truLOCAL subscription with “regular” (non-premium); and premium meat, fish, and poultry, and the prices of my “basket” were $75 and $120 respectively. While I had to make numerous assumptions, $125 for premium products delivered right to your door seems more than fair. There’s also the convenience factor of having everything delivered!
Promo Code
I’d highly recommend trying truLOCAL yourself, and now you can save some money too! Use Promo Code KATEM10 and Referral Code FP53NKBG7Q1J for 10% off your first order. This will make the small box $112.50 (instead of $125) and the regular box $225 (instead of $250). Note that this applies to your first box only.
If you give truLOCAL a try, let me know how you enjoy it!
NOTE: My first order from truLOCAL was provided free of charge for the purposes of a review. As always, all opinions are my own.
