Shipping, Cold Chain & Returns
Orders leave the kitchen within 48 hours. Free shipping across the EU over €55. Food is not furniture, so the returns rules below are different from the ones you are used to — and we have written out exactly why.
Last updated: 3 September 2026
Where we ship, what it costs, how long it takes
| Zone | Countries | Cost | Transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg | €4.95 | 1–2 working days |
| EU near | Germany, France, Denmark, Austria | €6.95 | 2–3 working days |
| EU wide | Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria | €9.95 | 3–5 working days |
| United Kingdom | England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland | €14.95 | 4–6 working days |
| Switzerland | CH and LI | €19.50 | 4–7 working days |
Free shipping on orders over €55 in the Home, EU near and EU wide zones. UK and Swiss orders over €55 pay a flat €7.50 towards customs handling. We do not ship food outside Europe: the routes we would have to use take too long and cost more in emissions than the jar is worth.
UK and Swiss parcels are sent DDP — duties and import VAT are calculated and paid by us at checkout, so nothing is owed on the doorstep. Every parcel carries a commercial invoice, the EU food-contact declarations and the ingredient decks the carrier needs.
Despatch schedule
- Cupboard-stable orders — jars, bottles, blends, gift crates — are picked and despatched within 48 hours of payment, Monday to Thursday.
- Meal kits and Cellar boxes go out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only. Nothing with a fresh component is allowed to sit in a depot over a weekend.
- Orders placed after 14:00 CET on Thursday are picked the following Monday.
- You get a tracking link the moment the label is created, and a second message from the carrier when the parcel is out for delivery.
Cold chain, honestly
Most of what we sell does not need a cold chain, and saying otherwise would be theatre. Our sauces are hot-filled at 88°C, capped, inverted and cooled to give a vacuum seal, and our acidified sauces sit at pH 4.2 or below. Unopened, they are shelf-stable for eighteen months at normal room temperature. Spice blends and salts are dry goods and need nothing but a lid.
The exception is the fresh half of a meal kit — cheese, preserved lemon, fresh pasta where a kit uses it. Those travel in a recycled-fibre insulated liner with two frozen gel packs, sized so the pack holds below 8°C for 36 hours at 22°C ambient. That is why kits ship Tuesday and Wednesday and only within the Home and EU near zones.
What we ask of you on delivery
Cold chain is a shared obligation, and yours starts when the parcel reaches you. Please:
- Bring the parcel indoors on the day of delivery. A kit left in a hallway or on a balcony for two days is outside anything we can stand behind.
- Unpack a meal kit or Cellar box on arrival and refrigerate whatever the card marks “keep cold”. Everything else goes in the cupboard.
- Check the vacuum button on each jar lid. It should be concave and should not click when pressed.
- Tell us within 24 hours if anything looks wrong. Photographs of the parcel, the liner and the gel packs make a claim immediate rather than a conversation.
If a sauce arrives warm
A warm jar is not a spoiled jar. Hot-filled, sealed, acidified sauce is designed to travel at ambient temperature, and a parcel that has sat in a warm van is safe as long as the seal is intact. Let it cool, check the lid button, and use it normally.
What is not fine: a lid that has lifted, a seal that clicks, a jar that hisses or fizzes when opened, any bulging, or any smell of ferment. Do not taste it. Send us a photograph and we replace the jar the same day, no return needed — we would rather lose €14 than have you test our packaging with your stomach.
If a parcel is delayed
- Cupboard goods. We chase the carrier at 5 working days past the transit estimate, and re-send or refund at 10.
- Meal kits and Cellar boxes. If tracking shows more than 48 hours in transit, we do not wait for you to ask. We refund or re-send automatically, and you should not eat anything marked “keep cold” from that parcel.
- No tracking movement for 72 hours. Treat it as lost; write to us and we will re-send rather than open a two-week carrier investigation first.
Returns and refunds for food
As a consumer buying at distance in the EU you normally have 14 days to withdraw from a purchase without giving a reason. Food is the main place that right is limited, and the limits are real rather than something we invented:
- Perishable goods are excluded — Consumer Rights Directive Art. 16(d), goods liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly. In practice: meal kits and any Cellar box that has been despatched.
- Sealed goods you have unsealed are excluded — Art. 16(e), sealed goods which are not suitable for return for reasons of health protection or hygiene. In practice: any jar, bottle or pouch whose seal you have broken.
What that leaves, and what we voluntarily offer beyond the statutory minimum:
- Unopened, sealed, cupboard-stable items: 14 days from delivery, any reason, full refund including the outbound standard shipping. You pay the return postage. Pack them so the glass survives the trip.
- Anything faulty, damaged, mis-picked, short-dated or that simply tastes wrong: refunded or replaced at our cost, whether it is open or not. This is a conformity claim, not a withdrawal, and it is not limited to 14 days.
- Meal kits and despatched Cellar boxes: no right of withdrawal once despatched, for the reason above. Cancel or skip a Cellar box up to 5 days before despatch and nothing is charged.
Damaged in transit
Glass breaks. Send one photograph of the outer box and one of the contents to [email protected] with your order number, within 7 days of delivery. We do not ask for the broken jar back — posting broken glass is a bad idea for everyone — and a replacement goes out on the next despatch run. If you would rather have the money, we refund the affected lines within 3 working days.
Refunds, timing and method
Refunds go back to the original payment method. We process within 3 working days of agreeing the claim or receiving a return, and the statutory outside limit is 14 days. iDEAL and card refunds usually land in 1–3 banking days; SEPA transfers take up to 5.
Wrong address, missed delivery, refused parcels
Check your address before you pay: we cannot redirect a parcel once the carrier has it. A parcel returned to us because the address was wrong or nobody collected it from the pick-up point is refunded minus the outbound and return carriage. A meal kit returned that way cannot be resold and is refunded at 50 percent — we would rather tell you that here than surprise you later.
Complaints
Write to [email protected]. We acknowledge within 2 working days and answer substantively within 14 days. If we cannot agree, the dispute-resolution routes — including the European ODR platform — are set out in our terms and conditions.
This page is realistic scaffolding written for a client presentation, not legal advice. Have it reviewed by a Dutch food-law and consumer-law practitioner before trading.