What touches your food
Every container has a lid. Almost nobody tells you what it's made of. Here is the whole category, in one table, including us.
We're not going to tell you plastic is dangerous. Nobody can tell you that honestly, and the brands that pretend otherwise are selling you fear at a markup.
We're going to tell you something much simpler, and much easier to check: your food doesn't only touch the box. It touches the lid. And in this category, the lid is where the plastic went.
Steel containers and bottles
| Brand | Vessel | Lid / cap | Spare seal sold? |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Stainless Co. | 304 steel | 304 steel | Yes — €3.95–€4.95 |
| Mepal Campus RVS | Steel | Plastic | — |
| Chilly's | Steel | Steel + polypropylene | No |
| Stanley | Steel | Polypropylene lid, plastic straw | No |
| Hydro Flask | Steel | Polypropylene — "All of Hydro Flask's caps are made out of BPA/BPS free polypropylene" | No |
| Klean Kanteen | Steel | Polypropylene as standard. The plastic-free cap is a paid upgrade | — |
| IKEA 365+ (steel) | Steel | Plastic | — |
| Bentgo | Steel | Polypropylene | No |
| Zojirushi Ms. Bento | Steel outer shell — but the food sits in "3 microwaveable inner bowls… made of BPA-free plastic" | Plastic | No |
Two more worth knowing about, because the grade matters as much as the material:
- ECOlunchbox, from their own FAQ: "All other ECOlunchbox stainless steel bentos are made in India with… stainless steel 201."
- Onyx, from their own product page: "made from #202 food grade Stainless Steel."
Ours is 304, in every product, at every price. It doesn't change by colour, size, or how much you paid.
Glass containers
Glass is a good choice. We're not going to pretend it isn't — see below. But there's one thing about it that almost nobody has looked at.
We checked fifteen glass brands. Every glass container sold in the Netherlands that is designed to be carried and sealed has a plastic lid. Not most. All of them.
| Brand | Lid | Spare seal sold? |
|---|---|---|
| IKEA 365+ (glass) | "Lid: Polypropylene plastic. Seal: Silicone rubber." | — |
| Mepal (glass) | Materials field reads: Glas, PP, TPE
|
— |
| HEMA glazen clipdoos | "doorzichtige kunststof deksel" | — |
| Glasslock | "the lids are made of polypropylene" | No — "the gaskets are not available as a separate replacement part" |
| Pyrex | "BPA-free plastic" — the polymer isn't named. Their 10-year warranty excludes the lid. | No |
| Duralex, OXO, Anchor Hocking, Ello | "BPA-free plastic" — none of them will name the polymer | No |
| Le Parfait (canning jar) | Glass — but their own advice: "replace rubber seals every six months for everyday use" | Yes (consumable) |
| Weck (canning jar) | Glass — but freezer use requires their plastic Keep Fresh Cover | — |
The only genuinely all-glass lids in the category belong to canning jars — and their own makers tell you not to use them for daily storage.
And Pyrex proves the gap by failing to fill it: they built a glass-lid range, and dropped the leakproof claim. In this category you can have leakproof, or you can have no plastic. Until now, nobody offered both.
Glass solved the box and forgot the lid. A glass container is a plastic-lidded container with a transparent bottom.
Now the honest part: where we lose
A page like this is worthless if it only lists other people's problems. So here are ours.
There is silicone in our products
One food-grade silicone seal, so it doesn't leak. It is not steel, and we're not going to hide it in a footnote — it's the second of the only two materials we use, and we name it on every product page. Silicone isn't plastic, but it also isn't steel, and you're entitled to know it's there.
It also wears out. So we sell you a new one. For a few euros, for as long as you own the product.
Steel doesn't go in the microwave
Glass does. This is a real, daily advantage and we can't argue with it. The Voedingscentrum recommends glass over steel for exactly this reason, and they're right to.
You can't see inside
Glass wins this outright. Unanswerable.
Glass is cheaper
An IKEA 365+ 1L glass box is €4.49. We will never compete with that, and we're not going to try.
Steel releases trace nickel and chromium
This is real and it's findable, so we'd rather you heard it here.
The research people cite (Kamerud et al., 2013) simmered tomato sauce at 85°C for six to twenty hours. It's a study about cookware, not storage. Nobody simmers sauce in a lunchbox, and migration drops sharply after the first few uses.
We are not going to tell you "steel doesn't leach" — no study exists of cold-storage migration from 304, so nobody can honestly prove that negative. What we'll tell you instead is that roughly 10–15% of people are nickel-sensitive, and if that's you, you should know that before you buy from us.
It's heavier
About 1.5× the weight of plastic. Not double — we've seen brands claim glass is "twice as heavy" and it isn't. But heavier, yes.
So what's the actual argument
Not that plastic is poisoning you. Nobody can say that honestly.
Just this:
- Plastic doesn't belong in food. (The Voedingscentrum says this word for word.)
- Nobody knows the long-term effects yet. (Every Dutch authority says this.)
- So why keep the question open, when a material exists that closes it?
Two materials. Both named. 304 stainless steel and one food-grade silicone seal. That's the entire list, across everything we sell — lids and bottle caps included. If a third ever appears, it goes on the page before it goes in the box.
Food should be stored without doubt.
Every quotation on this page is taken from the brand's own published product page, FAQ or materials listing. Prices and specifications current as of July 2026 and subject to change by the manufacturer.