Start with the lid
Almost everyone who moves away from plastic changes the box. Very few people look at the lid.
Which is strange, because your food spends three days in the fridge pressed directly against it. And in this category, the lid is where the plastic went. Chilly’s, Stanley, Hydro Flask, Mepal, IKEA, Bentgo — polypropylene. Glass containers almost always close with a plastic lid too. Glass solved the box and forgot the lid.
Every lid in this collection is 304 steel. So is the bottle cap. See the whole category, lid by lid.
Two materials. Both named.
Every container and lunch box in this collection is 304 food-grade stainless steel and one food-grade silicone seal. That is the entire list. No coatings, no liners.
The bottle is the one exception, and we name it too: its outer wall is a second grade of steel, 201, which never touches your water. Every surface your water touches is 304.
The seal is not an embarrassment we’re hiding. It is the proof of the rule: a company willing to name its one non-steel part is a company you can believe about the rest.
304 on every surface your food touches
304 — also written 18/8 — is the kitchen standard. It is what a chef’s worktop is made from.
It is worth knowing that “food grade” is not a single standard: 201, 202, 304 and 316 all get sold under that phrase, and they are not the same material. We print the number, because “food grade” is what you say when you would rather not. More on that here.
Built to be kept, not replaced
It won’t stain, warp, or hold on to yesterday’s smell. It will scratch — steel does — and a scratch in steel is cosmetic. It doesn’t crack when it hits a tiled floor.
Ten years on the steel — rust included, not excluded in the small print. And when the silicone seal eventually loses its spring, we sell you a new one for a few euros rather than a new container.
And what steel won’t do
It doesn’t go in the microwave. You can’t see through it. It’s heavier than plastic. If those things matter more to you than what your food touches, buy something else — with our blessing.
We’re not here to tell you plastic is dangerous. Nobody can tell you that honestly. We’re here because “nobody knows yet” isn’t a good enough answer for the thing your dinner sits in for three days.
