H

ealthy lifestyles have become more popular in Jakarta over the past years and, as demand increases, the number of healthy and diet food delivery services in Greater Jakarta is also growing.

Healthy food delivery services, locally called '€œcatering'€, can easily be found on the Internet. The prices set for different customized packages vary from Rp 400,000 (US$30) to Rp 975,000 per week, depending on the courses and the number of meals. Most services offer only weekday delivery.

Meal packages can be customized in accordance with the customers'€™ needs and health conditions.

Green Apron Meal founder Farahdina Gatam, 36, was one of the business owners who has benefited from the growing population of health conscious people in the city.

Farahdina, who started her business last year, said recently that her primary market was professionals aged 27 and above.

'€œI know how busy they are, despite their awareness about staying healthy by eating healthy. That'€™s why they became my main target,'€ she said, adding that she initially did not intend to start a healthy catering business.

'€œMy husband had health issues when his weight nearly reached 100 kilograms a few years ago, so I resorted to providing him with healthy meals. Basically, my husband was my first client,'€ said Farahdina, who recently received a raw food chef certificate.

Orders from her friends came in later as they could see the difference in her and her husband'€™s bodies and she was encouraged to establish Green Apron Meal.

As orders flowed in, Farahdina decided to set a quota of 40 customers per week so she could maintain the quality of the deliveries.

'€œI still want to be in charge in the kitchen or directly consult my clients,'€ she said.

Premium healthy catering service provider SlimGourmet has also enjoyed a stable increase since its establishment in 2008.

'€œInitially, a lot of clients only wanted to try our meals, but now the majority of our clients are loyal customers,'€ SlimGourmet owner and certified nutritionist Jocelyn Halim said, adding that the business mostly served professional elites in Greater Jakarta: entrepreneurs, government officials and socialites.

SlimGourmet provides various packages, such as the healthy package, regular slim and KidzGourmet, which was designed for children. To cater to its premium customers, SlimGourmet has five chefs with different specialties.

Another healthy catering business startup, Canary Homemade '€” which was established in 2014 '€” targeted an even more specific market: expecting and nursing mothers.

'€œI didn'€™t expect that I would receive more orders from expecting and nursing mothers than from young women who wanted to lose weight. That'€™s why I decided to create special packages for them starting this month,'€ Canary Homemade founder and owner Dwirani Hadiprawoto said.

Dwirani differentiated the menu for expecting and nursing mothers both from the quantity and ingredients. '€œI provide them with more calories and calcium-rich side snacks. I also often give ginger and chicken soup for pregnant clients to comfort their stomachs. I also prepare more side dishes but in smaller portions for them,'€ she said, adding that she also grew produce in her own backyard.

Apriyanti, 29, a nursing mother, said she decided to trust the healthy catering provider to achieve her personal goals.

'€œI want to lose weight without compromising nutrition for my baby,'€ she said, adding that she managed to lose 1 kilogram within only one week.

Jocelyn was upbeat that the healthy trend would prevail, saying that, '€œwith the rise in obesity and chronic disease in Indonesia, my logic tells me: Who wouldn'€™t want to avoid these health issues, if they knew how?'€