A Maine startup serves locally sourced meal kits for time-crunched cooks

Over the last decade, an entire industry has taken shape that mails ready-to-cook meals to time-crunched home chefs, with clear recipes and pre-measured ingredients carefully boxed inside every delivery.

But there are downsides to those meal kits from national brands like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, including the difficulty of knowing where their ingredients come from, and the incredible amounts of plastic and cardboard packaging that go into them.

It has not been easy to meet that part of her mission, because of state regulations that have so far restricted her ability to distribute meals in reusable containers. However, in early March, Gov. Janet Mills signed new legislation that will eventually allow her to do so.

In general, customers can order their meals on the website of Farm & Fish by noon on Monday. Pilotte then buys the ingredients, assembles the kits and delivers them on Thursday at drop-off points in Blue Hill and Belfast, or directly to homes in Castine. Another drop-off point will soon be coming to Ellsworth, and customers can also buy kits directly from Pilotte at the United Farmers Market in Belfast every Saturday.

“I think it’s important to have options for people who want to eat locally,” Pilotte said. “And I’m really excited about the niche that Farm & Fish fits in.”

Some of the meal options recently listed on the website included Moroccan pizza, Irish-stuffed cabbage wraps, and scallops with tomatillo sauce and cilantro-lime corn. The advertised kits ranged in price from around $30 to $65, depending on the meal and number of servings.

It takes several days to source the ingredients from Maine farmers and vendors, whether they’re mushrooms from Wild Fruitings in Augusta, spinach from Hands Four Farm in Albion or carrots from Community Harvest in Unity.

If she can’t find an ingredient from a specific farmer or artisan, Pilotte said she tries to buy locally made alternatives at Hannaford whenever possible, and informs customers where each ingredient is from.

She uses a commercial kitchen space that she rents in Blue Hill to prep and package all of the meal kits, with everything portioned so customers simply have to follow the recipe. Pilotte said she makes sure to only buy what is necessary to minimize food waste.

However, Pilotte has had trouble meeting her goal of distributing meal kits in reusable steel and glass containers, which customers could then wash and return to her for sanitization in the commercial kitchen.

As she started her business, she was surprised to learn that she wouldn’t be able to do that under Maine food regulations, even though the state has previously loosened some other rules on reusable containers.

“I was stunned and shocked and didn’t really understand,” Pilotte said. “It doesn’t seem like we meant to say that businesses can’t reuse containers as long as they do it safely, sanitarily.”

For now, that has forced her to make do with mostly compostable containers for packaging, as well as plastics for liquids and other leakier ingredients.

But after learning of the restrictions, Pilotte went to her local legislators, who drafted a bill, LD 2091, that would eventually allow her to use reusable containers. The law passed both chambers and was signed by Mills on March 6, although it will not take effect immediately.

Switching to reusable containers will cut Pilotte’s costs by about six percent, she said. Though it’s not much, she feels it’ll be worth the removal of plastics from the waste stream.

Once she can start using reusable containers, Pilotte wants to expand her business to a subscription model and eventually serve the whole state.

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