We are huge fans of soup! And while we love to make our own soups from scratch, the prep and constant cooking, coupled with the current increase in home cooked meals, does get exhausting.
Enter Proper Good, a new collection of heat-and-serve soups that are made from clean and easy-to-pronounce (and recognize!) ingredients. This includes a delicious collection of soups, such as Squash & Carrot, Red Pepper & Meatball, Chicken & Mushroom, and Meatball Minestrone that have been the perfect option for a quick and healthy lunch.
Personally, we love how this line deviates from the traditional heat-and-serve soup model (aka canned soups), offering a product that is made with clean ingredients like grass-fed bone broth, turmeric, and coconut milk and packed in clear, BPA-free flexible pouches that gets delivered right to your door.
In addition to the rich flavors, some of the soups are vegan, keto and gluten-free. And all of them are low-calorie and contain no artificial ingredients. They are also an eco-friendly option where they include a ‘recycle’ envelope so that customers can send their pouches back to us – free of charge – where they will recycle them properly.
To learn more about Proper Good, we chatted with co-founder Jennifer Jane who shared more about how the idea came about and what’s next for the company.
Interview with Jennifer Jane, Co-Founder of Proper Good
Weekend Jaunts: How did the idea of Proper Good come about?
Jennifer Jane: We both love to eat well but sometimes we don’t have the time to cook from scratch. When we looked for simple good-for-you meals the ‘meal prep’ options still took quite a while and the completed ready-made solutions just didn’t cut it in terms of ingredients lists and nutritional information. So, we decided to make our own 90-second meal solutions that you could take anywhere with you!
We’re starting with soups, and you’ll find functional ingredients such as grass-fed bone broth, coconut milk, and turmeric, and we never add any artificial anything… just read the ingredients panel to see for yourself.
We love the direct to consumer brand approach so currently, eatpropergood.com is the only way to get the goodies, this allows us to build relationships and interact one to one with consumers.
Weekend Jaunts: How did you decide on the flavors to feature?
Jennifer Jane: We have the ability to release new flavors quickly, and we hope our consumers will get involved in suggesting and voting on new releases, so to start with we kept the line-up small with just four items – a real mixture of bone broth-based soups, a vegan-friendly soup, gluten-free soups, and two keto suitable soups, allowing our consumers to choose for themselves based on their lifestyle or diet choices. We will follow their guidance as we look to launch new items.
In terms of the actual flavors – we decided to take familiar soups and add a Proper Good twist, for example, who doesn’t love a good minestrone? But we added delicious meatballs, farro and gave it a grass-fed beef bone broth base. Or how about squash & carrot, an indulgent silky soup with a coconut milk base and added turmeric and a hint of cinnamon. You get the idea – familiar but elevated.
Weekend Jaunts: How are you different from what’s out there?
Jennifer Jane: We are different in many ways!
Firstly, the approach to the brand is full transparency, this comes literally from our clear pouches so you can ‘see the food’, this is incredibly important to us as it speaks to the quality of the ingredients and openness of our company – nothing hidden.
In a lot of cases, the nutritional panels on soups show 2 servings, but almost no one is eating half a container of soup so it’s easy to be duped, we are trying to keep things clear by showing ‘1 x 12oz serving per container’ so no math is required to figure out what you’re actually putting in your body.
Our ingredients are as clean as physically possible, with no artificial ingredients or colorings, 0g of added sugar, and as much good stuff as we could get in!
We have an obsessive attention to detail at every stage of the process from recipes to ensuring people receive not only the tasty products, but also beautifully designed packaging, so our customers can enjoy a stress-free shopping experience online and then receive a beautiful happy box that arrives on your doorstep full of nourishing food. We then build conversations with our consumers, adjust based on the feedback, offer a recycling program, and many other elements to ensure our consumers are happy in every way.
Weekend Jaunts: Tell us more about your exciting recycling program!
Jennifer Jane: Our packaging is as minimal as we could make it and 100% recyclable. All of our boxes, envelopes, flyers, and similar pieces are made of cardboard so they are widely recyclable at home curbside. Our pouch is the only part of the product experience that is not easily recyclable, however, if you live in an area where it is not recyclable we include a ‘recycle’ envelope so customers can send their pouches back to us – free of charge – and we will recycle them properly.
We find it quite cheeky that a lot of companies say that their packaging is fully recyclable when their products are in tetra paks, but tetra pak recycling is not widely available and you must take them to a special facility which almost no one has the time for. Watch out for the ‘recyclable where facilities exist’ phrase on the packaging, as if you put that in your curb-side home recycle bin it will likely just end up in landfill, unfortunately.
One other point to note on the packaging is that our pouch has significantly less environmental impact than cans or tetra paks simply because of the weight and volume, ounce for ounce our packs are very very lightweight compared to the other options, most studies show a 90% reduction in weight and freight cost as empty pouches are almost paper-thin and packed tightly, whereas empty cans take up full truckloads!
So, we are trying to do all we can to be conscious about what we are doing while focusing on providing tasty soup and easy 90-second meal options 🙂
Weekend Jaunts: What’s next for Proper Good?
Jennifer Jane: Proper Good will be expanding its soup range and adding additional healthy, easy to eat meals to its line up very soon, any ideas what you would like to see us make?
Weekend Jaunts: Anything else to add?
Jennifer Jane: Additional Info about Proper Good.
We previously raised investment via a crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder and this video gives a bit more information about the brand and people: https://wefunder.com/eatpropergood
You can also find more information about Chris at christopherjane.com and about Jen at jennyofthejane.com.
Proper Good is now available for purchase at EatProperGood.com for $6.99 – $7.99 per 12 oz pouch.
