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Sustainably sourced and fresh wild salmon and other fine seafood delivered to your home in a box? Sounds too good to be true, right? We were skeptics about Vital Choice, an online company that promises perfectly preserved seafood and organic products with a money-back guarantee. So, we delved into its company practices and products to determine if this company lives up to its claims.
Article Overview
- Pros & Cons
- Key Features
- Products & Pricing
- What Do Customers Think?
- Where Do They Source Meats? (Video)
- Want Meals Delivered To Your Door?
Vital Choice
Pros
- Excellent sustainability, safety and eco-friendly practices
- Wide variety of seafood, ethically raised meats, organic, Kosher products
- All supplements are gluten-free, non-GMO and contain no artificial preservatives, colors, dairy, starch, wheat or sugar
- Wild salmon is flash frozen for optimal freshness
- Fantastic discounts and rewards for return shoppers
- Skip or cancel subscription anytime
- 30-day money back guarantee
- BBB accredited with A+ rating
Cons
- No weekend or evening customer service hours
- Can't customize subscription boxes
Key Features
It’s clear when you take a closer look into this company’s business practices that it’s committed to providing customers high-quality, sustainably harvested products and reducing its carbon footprint. Even if you don’t love seafood, you are sure to find other organic foods you love from the company’s poultry, meat, berries, chocolate, and other gourmet selections.
Sustainable Seafood And Organic Foods
- Supports precious wild salmon resources in Alaska and British Columbia
- The fisheries that supply its seafood are certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, the State of Alaska’s RFM program or the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s SeafoodWatch program
- Sources seafood with miniscule mercury levels that fall far below the legal limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
- Premium, humanely raised meats and poultry
- Offers USDA-certified organic and certified Kosher food products
Environmental Impact
- Certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency
- Vital Green Program ensures recycled and environmentally-friendly shipping practices and materials
- Working with NativeEnergy, Inc., Vital Choice has supported a methane-to-energy project at a Pennsylvania farm and helped turn the town of Greenburg, Kansas into a partially wind-powered community
- Charitable giving to several environmental organizations, including Healthy Child Healthy World, SeaShare and the Natural Resources Defense Council
Customer Focused
- Generous customer rewards, loyalty and referral programs
- Order online or by phone 24/7/365
- Live chat, phone and email customer support Monday through Friday from 7am to 4pm Pacific Time
- 30-day refund policy
- Email newsletter gives you deals, recipes and health news
- Excellent Learning Center on its website with health information, seafood cooking tips, recipes and more
- Healthy Mom and Baby page about harmful mercury levels and health benefits of DHA omega-3 found in seafood
Products & Pricing
What can’t you order from Vital Choice? This company offers a vast variety of products, including flash-frozen wild fish, shellfish, canned and pouched seafood, premium pasture-raised meats, soups, broths, flash-frozen berries, seasonings, chocolates, omega-3s, supplements and more. Here are some highlights from its menu. Shipping is free with orders over $99.
Vital Box Subscription
Vital Choice offers three monthly subscription boxes that include hand-picked, sustainably-caught salmon, fish, shellfish and other products. These are great for large families — or to go in with your neighbors.
You pay monthly, and you can skip or cancel anytime. The monthly auto-shipment cost is a 10% discount on regular pricing.
- $129/box: Wild Salmon Box (14+ servings) includes its favorite salmon specialties, such as single-serve portions, salmon burgers, salmon hot dogs or sausages, smoked salmon and more.
- $169/box: Wild Fish Box (15+ servings) includes wild salmon and other fish, such as halibut, cod, tuna, sole and sablefish, with salmon burgers, hot dogs or sausages and more.
- $199/box: Wild Seafood Box (17+ servings) includes a range of salmon, fish and shellfish, along with tasty salmon burgers, hot dogs or sausages and more.
Top Sellers
There are too many products to list in our review, but here’s a sampling of Vital Choice’s best-selling items to give you an idea of its pricing. For many products, the more you buy, the more you save.
- $99: Welcome Box (includes wild Sockeye Salmon, wild King Salmon and wild Alaskan Halibut, deluxe Salmon Burgers & fabulous organic fixin’s)
- $15.40: Starting price for one 6-oz portion of wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon fillets
- $56: Wild Fish, Organic Chicken & Organic Beef Broth trio (24-oz pouches each)
- $25.90: Wild Patagonian Sea Scallops (1 lb bag)
- $13.20: Organic Flash-Frozen Blueberries (1 lb bag)
- $32: Wild Portuguese Sardines EVO (6 4.4-oz cans)
Vitamin Supplements
Vital Choice carries its own line of sustainably sourced vitamin supplements that are gluten-free, non-GMO and contain no artificial preservatives, colors, dairy, starch, wheat, yeast or sugar. Here’s a sampling of its best-sellers.
- $40: Wild Sockeye Salmon Oil (1 bottle of 180 ct. 1,000mg soft gels)
- $48: Wild Antarctic Krill Oil (1 bottle of 60 ct., 1,000mg soft gels)
- $74: Omega-3 Therapy + Vitamin D3 Oil (1 bottle of 180 ct., 850mg high-potency gels)
What Do People Think Of Vital Choice?
Here’s a balanced sampling of real customer reviews we found around the web. We should note that Vital Choice received an impressive number of 5-star ratings (nearly 90% out of 11,000+ reviews) from users on Trustpilot.
Positive Reviews
I have trusted Vital Choice for all my seafood for years. My favorite product is poached salmon. I am impressed with the care Vital Choice takes with catching, preparing, and shipping the seafood. I am happily assured that the products are wild caught. No farmed seafood for ME. – Gwendolyn I., Trustpilot 01/17/2019
Highest praise to Vital Choice for their absolutely premium products. I have tried just about every protein they sell, from their wild and sustainably caught fish, to their humanely raised (and slaughtered) pork, buffalo and beef etc. The quality and flavor has always been exceptional, and I love all they do to educate customers about how protecting our environment and eating well can go hand in hand, from buffalo sustaining our ancient prairies to line catching fish to reduce bycatch of other species. – E.M., Yelp 02/13/2018
Negative Reviews
Very disappointed in my order. The fish obviously went through a freezing process that eliminated natural moisture. Have tried poaching and broiling and both techniques leave fish thick and tasteless. I get better “previous” frozen at WholeFoods and have come to trust them. Vital Choice is a nice idea, but has a very long way to gooooooooo. – Disappointed, Trustpilot 12/17/2018
Very disappointing. I ordered portion size of halibut and pacific salmon. Both come out dry and dense. Conclusion: the Atlantic Salmon portions at WholeFoods are moist and flakey when cooked.. Perhaps only value is in using to make stock but that is questionable as they seem to have frozen out the taste. – Stephanie J., Yelp 12/09/2018
Where Does Vital Choice Source Its Meats?
Vital Choice offers several humanely-raised types of meat and poultry, including pasture-raised pork and chicken and grass-fed beef and bison. Singing Prairie Farms is one of Vital Choice’s carefully selected partners. See the brief story about this farm in La Plata, Missouri that specializes in pasture-raised pigs.
Want Full Meals Delivered To Your Door?
We highly recommend Vital Choice for your sustainable seafood needs delivered right to your door. It’s an excellent alternative to the grocery store.
If you’re looking for quick and easy (but healthy) weekday meals, we urge you to check out our Best Meal Delivery Service article and Best Vegan Meal Delivery Service. We review all the popular services, like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh, for your consideration and include pros and cons, features, pricing and more.
What food or meal delivery companies are your go-to’s?
Vital Choice
Pros
- Excellent sustainability, safety and eco-friendly practices
- Wide variety of seafood, ethically raised meats, organic, Kosher products
- All supplements are gluten-free, non-GMO and contain no artificial preservatives, colors, dairy, starch, wheat or sugar
- Wild salmon is flash frozen for optimal freshness
- Fantastic discounts and rewards for return shoppers
- Skip or cancel subscription anytime
- 30-day money back guarantee
- BBB accredited with A+ rating
Cons
- No weekend or evening customer service hours
- Can't customize subscription boxes
