Food containers & flasks

Features of food containers

Food containers come in different shapes and sizes. The best-known is the wide, insulated pot with a screw lid: it keeps hot food warm until you sit down to eat, and the opening is wide enough to eat from with a fork. You will also find lunch boxes and food tubs, from insulated lunch cups to sturdy steel boxes and storage containers for loose food.

Insulated or not is the most important choice. A double-walled container keeps soup and stew warm for hours and yoghurt or salad just as cold for just as long. A single-walled lunch box keeps nothing at temperature, but it is lighter and easier to clean.

The contents vary a lot: from about 240 ml for a snack and 400 ml for one portion of soup, to well over 700 ml for a full meal and several litres for a lunch box that holds a complete lunch.

How do you choose the best food container?

• A double-walled container keeps soup and stew hot for hours, and yoghurt or salad just as cold. That is most of what is here. A single-walled lunch box is lighter, but keeps nothing at temperature.
• Count on about 400 ml for one course and 700 ml for a meal that will fill you up.
• A screw lid keeps liquid food inside. A click lid opens faster, but is less reliable in a backpack. The lids are plastic or stainless steel.
• Some of the containers have a spork or a tumbler in the lid, so you do not need to carry anything separately.

Almost everything here is stainless steel, and that means it must not go in the microwave. You put hot food into it hot, you do not heat it up in there. Most of it is dishwasher safe, with a handful of exceptions listed per product.

Yeti, Stanley and Le Creuset fill this category, all three with steel containers.

In the same category you will also find pet bowls for the dog, made from the same steel and with the same dishwasher rules. If you only want cutlery, you will find that under outdoor cutlery.