ButcherBox

ButcherBox, meat and seafood subscription delivered to your door

ButcherBox is a subscription service that ships boxes of meat and seafood to your door. The company presents itself as "the butcher that comes to you": it handles the sourcing and the customer handles the cooking. The catalog is organized around four main categories —beef, pork, chicken, and seafood— and caters to very different types of cooks: grill enthusiasts, those who meal prep for the whole week, families, pescatarians, hosts, and breakfast lovers.

The company states that it has more than 400,000 subscribers, has sent over one billion meals, and has accumulated more than 70,000 five-star reviews. The founder, Mike Salguero, started the project with the goal of bringing healthier meat to as many people as possible.

Sourcing standards

Sourcing is the core of its proposition. The company describes several standards it applies to the animals raised for its boxes:

• 100% grass-fed: the animals follow a natural diet of grass and forage on pasture for their entire lives and are never confined to feedlots. The meat is lean, contains omega-3s, and has a robust flavor derived from that diet.
• Pasture-raised: they can roam freely and behave naturally; that grazing can act as a natural fertilizer and benefit soil and water health.
• No antibiotics or added hormones: the animals never receive antibiotics or added hormones. Sick animals receive antibiotics and are not sold to ButcherBox. Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in poultry and bison.
• Wild-caught seafood: it comes from its natural environment, caught by fishermen who uphold strict sustainability practices, with no antibiotics or added hormones.
• Animal welfare certification: all meat and seafood proteins are audited by a third party to verify compliance with rigorous animal welfare or environmental sustainability standards.

Catalog products

The catalog combines classic cuts with prepared items and sides. Featured items include:

• 100% grass-fed beef burgers 80/20: six 5.3 oz patties (2 lbs total), with an 80% meat to 20% fat ratio; they can be cooked directly from frozen.
• 100% grass-fed ribeye steaks: two 10 oz steaks, tender and juicy, suitable for the grill or a skillet.
• Crate-free pork bratwurst sausage: fully cooked product, 12 oz, presented as a convenient option for the grill or a weeknight dinner.
• Organic, free-range, gluten-free chicken nuggets: 22 oz bag, fully cooked and lightly seasoned, ready for the oven or microwave.
• Crispy gluten-free potato tots, seed oil free, and non-GMO: 14 oz bag, fried in avocado oil and with twice the protein per bite.
• 100% grass-fed uncured beef hot dogs: 2 lbs, skinless and with no nitrites or nitrates added.

Product labeling and certifications

The product pages detail the attributes of each item. The chicken is USDA certified organic, which means feed grown without synthetic pesticides or herbicides, no animal by-products or genetically modified organisms, and seasonal access to the outdoors. The nuggets and tots are certified gluten free by WFCF (wherefoodcomesfrom.com). The tots are also Non-GMO Project Verified, a seal that requires independent testing to confirm less than 0.9% genetically modified organisms, and they are made without vegetable oils extracted from seeds such as canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, corn, or cottonseed.

Origin of the meat

Some of the beef and lamb comes from ranchers in Australia, a country whose climate and pasture the company considers ideal for raising 100% grass-fed cattle. In those cases, the animals are born, raised, and harvested in Australia, while the cutting and packaging are done in the United States. The chicken in the nuggets item comes from farms in the East Coast region of the United States.

Orders and customer service

The website allows you to choose a plan, sign in, and review how the service works, sourcing, FAQs, and a gifts section that includes bestsellers and corporate gifts. For those who prefer to place their order by phone, the company offers that purchasing channel.