Tovala now serves four people instead of one or two.
The company, which sells both a smart oven and a accompanying meal kit, launched family-sized meal options this week. Reviewers at Wired found the food "good" — the oven cooks evenly, the meals are relatively convenient, and the portions finally work for a family. But the sodium content is, in their words, "lord, the salt." Some meals reportedly exceed a full day's recommended sodium intake per serving.
This matters because Tovala occupies a weird niche in the meal kit space — you're buying into their hardware ecosystem, not just their food. The family meals make the proposition more viable for households that weren't being served. But the sodium issue isn't new to meal kits, and Tovala isn't doing anything to fix it. If you're already worried about processed food's health impacts, this won't ease your mind.
The real question is whether convenience justifies the trade-off — and whether Tovala will eventually face the same regulatory scrutiny that has plagued other high-sodium food products.