What’s for dinner, Facebook?

Sunday, 12 July 2026

Fancy eating your way around the world next weekend?

Saturday's breakfast might be Filipino pandesal, followed by Samoan chop suey for lunch. Dinner could be a Louisiana seafood boil and, on Sunday, perhaps Sri Lankan curry, Chinese dumplings or a traditional hāngī.

You don't need a passport, and you don't even need to book a restaurant.

All you need is Facebook Marketplace.

Once the domain of second-hand clothes, unwanted furniture and the occasional cursed spa pool, Marketplace has quietly become New Zealand's most unlikely food court.

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Scroll for a few minutes and you'll find everything from Nigerian egusi soup and jollof rice to roast pork dinners and South African bunny chow, all ready to be collected from a home kitchen near you.

On any given evening there are dozens of listings, with sellers advertising everything from single-serves to family-size trays.

Some post weekly menus while others announce limited drops available for only the next few hours.

Many meals are cooked to order, backed by glowing customer reviews and, in some cases, sold out before the weekend has even begun.

For buyers, it's a chance to eat food they might not otherwise find. For sellers, it's an opportunity to turn their kitchen prowess into a little extra income.

Sarah Walton, a Wellington mother of two, orders from Marketplace once or twice a month, usually collecting dinner on the way home from work.

'It's cheaper than takeaway, the portions are huge and it feels like you're supporting someone in your community.'

She also finds it more efficient because the food is always ready at the time she’s told to collect it.

“Unlike a takeaway shop, a home seller doesn’t really want you waiting in their lounge when they’re running late with your order.”

Mara started selling Indian dishes after friends kept asking her to cook for birthdays and family gatherings. Word spread, orders followed, and what began as a favour became a weekend side hustle for the Aucklander.

'It's a way for some people to make extra money, and for others to buy food much cheaper than they could from a restaurant or takeaway — if they could get it there at all.'

New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) is well aware of the growing trade in home-cooked meals through social media.

Acting deputy director-general Mike Inglis says the agency has seen the practice become increasingly common in New Zealand and overseas.

'People like the convenience of buying a wide range of food products online,' he says. 'Community-produced food such as home baking is very popular and allows sellers to reach a wider audience.'

But convenience doesn't change the law.

Under the Food Act, most people selling ready-to-eat meals are required to register as food businesses and ensure they are managing food safety risks appropriately, although there are some exemptions for fundraising, baked goods, and community events.

Asked whether NZFS actively monitors the online landscape, Inglis says the agency follows up where there is evidence of unsafe food being sold through social media and acts where required to ensure consumer safety.

'Often that means working directly with a food business on their processes so potential future risk is better managed,' he says.

More serious cases can result in stronger enforcement, including prosecution.

'The issue is not necessarily that the product is sold online. It's that the relevant processes that are in place to keep consumers safe were not in place.'

Even so, the regulator appears to recognise the landscape is changing.

NZFS is reviewing the current exemptions under the Food Act to determine whether more sellers of low-risk foods should be added to the list. Any proposed changes would go out for public consultation.

For now, though, the marketplace continues to thrive.

Last month American YouTuber Twani 2am, who has more than 56,000 subscribers, spent a day buying meals in Auckland for a video titled “I Tried Food From Strangers on Facebook Marketplace in New Zealand”.

His first stop was a house selling Island barbecue. Lifting the lid on a container piled high with macaroni, chop suey, chicken, lamb and sausages, he could barely believe the size of the meal.

'This is a big plate, boy. Guess how much this cost?'

The answer: $20.

By the end of the day he'd sampled food from several home cooks, mostly praising the quality and value. The video has since been viewed more than 86,000 times.

But while for Twani it was content, for many New Zealanders it's simply a regular way to buy dinner.

When Johnsonville resident Anna Wilson recently spotted a seafood boil advertised on Marketplace she didn’t need much prompting to give it a try.

Costing $60, the tray arrived piled high with crab, mussels, prawns, corn and sausage - enough to comfortably feed her family of four, with leftovers for lunch the next day.

'It was absolutely delicious,' she says. 'If we'd bought something similar from a restaurant it would have cost a lot more….and we wouldn’t have bought it because we could’t afford it.'

She never thought to ask whether the seller was registered, let alone ask to see their food-handling credentials.

“It honestly didn't even occur to me, maybe we were just too hungry.”

Instead, she did what many online shoppers do: looked at the photos, read the reviews and took reassurance from the comments left by previous customers.

And the seafood boil won't be her last Marketplace purchase because she's already scrolling to see what's on the menu next weekend.

“I think it'll have to be Indian. I might even pass it off to my family as my own.'

But if she opted for hāngī instead, one Lower Hutt family has that covered.

Most Saturdays, Cherie's husband and sons are up before dawn preparing the pit, lifting it some four hours later to reveal steaming parcels of meat, vegetables and stuffing destined for tables throughout the Wellington region.

'People bring their kids when they pick it up,' she says. 'They stand around having a chat. It's not like handing someone a burger through a drive-through.'

Like many home cooks selling through Marketplace, Cherie says she never really thought of herself as operating a food business.

'I honestly hadn't looked into it. I just saw it as cooking for people, the same way I always have.'

And perhaps that’s what’s at the heart of this thoroughly modern, not always legal, food economy.

For the people cooking the meals, it often doesn't feel like running a business, and for the people eating them, it doesn't feel like buying from one.

Which may help explain why, in an age of delivery apps, restaurant chains and endless takeaway options, so many of us are choosing to buy our next meal from someone's home kitchen.