The Pyrex lids are color-coded to match with the differently sized containers. Our runner-up pick, the Glasslock set, is best if youre looking for an entirely leakproof glass option. You can order the right-size lid on its website by looking for the product code etched into the bottom of your container. Second, they arent leakproof, which means that transporting them to work for lunch can be a messy affair. As we mentioned, the gaskets on the lids arent removable, which makes cleaning more difficult compared with the Glasslock set. We also found that the rectangular containers leaked from the corners. Anna is a mentor at Girls Write Now and a member of the Online News Association. If you prefer borosilicate glass containerswhich are even better than tempered glass ones at withstanding temperature changeswe liked the shape and size variation of the OXO 16 Piece Smart Seal Glass Container Set. First, you cant see through yogurt containers, so once the lid is on, you can easily forget what you have in there (and let it rot). But they also put pressure on the edge of the glass, which, according to the glass experts we spoke with, may be causing stress that results in breakage. These containers are microwave-, freezer-, and dishwasher-safe. Tempered glass is ideal for cooking and storing food because its very durable. Wondering which material to get? Its rare, but the Pyrex containers are no exception. And while other budget plastic containers we tested, like those from Reditainer and Glad, shattered immediately when filled with water and dropped from waist height, the Rubbermaid container we dropped remained fully sealed for two drops. Always stay within the recommended temperature threshold indicated in the manufacturers instructions. We also like deli containers, which stack and are designed to be disposable if you want to give food away or leave your container behind. Subscribe now for unlimited access. The containers also passed our thermal stress tests: They were still intact after we transferred them directly from a 350 F oven to the freezer and vice versa (we strongly urge you not to try this experiment at home). Per piece, the set also costs less than other glass options we considered. Just keep an eye out every time you open a container: The only thing you dont want is a piece of glass in your food. Previously she wrote food and lifestyle pieces for Saveur and Kinfolk magazines. Never had the glass part break.. In 2018, we also subjected the glass sets to extreme thermal stresses (which is something we strongly do not recommend trying at home): We pulled the containers from the freezer and filled them with boiling water; we took containers that had been in a 350 F oven for 10 minutes and filled them with ice water; we used the containers to reheat cold beef stew and tomato sauce in the microwave for three minutes; and, finally, we froze beef stew in the containers and put them directly into a 350 F oven for 10 minutes. That said, if youre looking for leakproof glass containers for meal prep, these are the best weve tested. The Popit Little Big Box Food Plastic Container Set didnt leak when filled with water, and the removable gasket made cleaning easy. If you want a lid thats easy to remove, you might like suction lids. There are just two shape and size options in the Rubbermaid Brilliance glass set, and the lids are more difficult to shut and pry off than those of our picks. The Rubbermaid TakeAlongs Food Storage Containers are perfect for transporting food to parties and other functions, and because theyre so cheap, you may not mind leaving pieces behind. Still, the Snapware Total Solution containers and lids provided a tight seal, which prevented any signs of freezer burn and didnt leak (even after a run through the dishwasher). Their locking lids require more effort to close than the lids of our main pick, the Pyrex Simply Store 18-Piece Set. Like Pyrex and Anchor Hocking, Glasslock makes its containers out of tempered soda-lime glass thats oven-, microwave-, freezer-, and dishwasher-safe. But the Glasslock set is the best choice if you want a leakproof glass container set. Like those of our current runner-up pick, this sets lids clip closed and may subject the lip of the containers to stress, which can increase the chances of breakage. As they cool down, if you put a colder glass inside of a warmer glass, theyre just going to grab onto each other. The plastic lids have a firm silicone gasket that fills the lid groove from edge to edge and provides a tight seal that doesnt leak. (For kicks, we even tried dropping a Glasslock container onto cement. These flaws arent noticeable unless youre looking for them, but they can potentially weaken the glass and make it more prone to shattering, so its something to know before you buy. We dont think you need to be fearful of using tempered-glass items, but you should still treat them with care. Although these containers didnt leak and did keep freezer-burn at bay, they stained easily and hung onto food odors. Plus, they stack neatly for storage. Your containers will likely outlast your lids, but you can try and take a little extra care of them to prolong their lifespan. We recommend storing soupier foods in the round Pyrex containers; the rectangular ones leaked from the corners in our tests. But we wouldnt recommend going out of your way to buy this set, since its difficult to order online (our containers took three weeks to arrive, and the $5 shipping fee is almost as much as the $6 set), and it doesnt include as many shapes as the TakeAlongs set. Glass is a brittle material and needs to be treated with care. Although there can be a lot of pieces to keep track of, these containers and lids stack well and dont take up as much space as youd expect. Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. This set was our former runner-up pick for glass containers (though it used to have 18 pieces and slightly different shape options). Weve tested a 40-piece set as well as a 52-piece set, and we found they came with a wider range of shapes and sizes than any of the other flimsier sets we tested. If you want to give someone a food gift to show you care, consider cooking for them, ordering a gift basket or delivery, or organizing a meal train. The containers nest well, or you can stack the sealed containers on top of each other. Youll need to weigh the trade-off between convenience and longevity when caring for your containers and lids. These containers stack beautifully in the fridge, making it easy to see what leftovers you have. Your family members tend to lose containers. The Zyliss Fresh Glass Food Storage Containers are made of borosilicate glass. Weve heard this from a number of Wirecutter staffers. We also subjected the Glasslock containers to extreme thermal stresses, and they survived unscathed. They chose what worked best for themselves and their families, and you can too. These locking plastic containers have lids that are a snap to open and close, and they wont leak. That being said, tempered glass is often referred to as safety glass because when it does break, it crumbles into cube-shaped pieces that are easy to sweep up, as opposed to long, thin shards that can more easily cut you. If this happens, just be sure to keep the damaged item, since you may be asked to return it. (We were surprised that the sets round containers didnt leak in our tests, but the rectangular ones are not leakproof, and a locking lid will still be best for preventing leaks and spills.) The Pyrex containers are fairly heavy, but thats true of all the glass models we tested (for lighter containers, we recommend plastic options). The Glasslock set comes with nine square, rectangular, and round containers ranging from 0.7 cup (165 milliliters) to 6.3 cups (1.5 liters) in size. Pyrexs plastic lids are obviously not oven-safe, and if youre using a dishwasher to clean the lids, they should be placed only on the top rack. The set comes with 10 containers and matching lids in a variety of shapes and sizes that we think will work for most foodsfrom small circular containers for storing sauces or dressings to deeper, rounded rectangles for lasagna or curry. These containers have glass lids trimmed with white silicone that evoke a chic, minimalist lifestyle thats aspirational but perhaps not realistic for actually storing food. We also polled our staff for long-term-testing feedback and read the comments on this guide. These inexpensive plastic containers come in multiple sizes, for packing and transporting food. Our favorite alternatives to plastic or disposable food storage include silicone food-storage bags, beeswax wraps, and cloth produce bags. They survived drop after drop onto a wood board placed over a cement floor. The Glasslock containers have locking lids that will prevent leaks. But we dismissed them after reading that Cooks Illustrated (subscription required) does not recommend them because the seal became noticeably looser after going through the dishwasher 50 times and leaked profusely. The glass Snapware set we tested didnt fare as well in our drop tests: Some of the flaps opened, and the corner of the lid cracked. Choose one of our glass picks if any of the following apply: Choose one of our plastic picks if any of the following apply: Ultimately, the choice between plastic and glass is a personal one thats based on lifestyle. That said, compared with other brands we tested, the Glasslock containers locked more securely without leaking and didnt break or pop open when dropped. The lids also work with glass Snapware containers, which is convenient if youre buying both styles and dont want to have to rummage through various lids in your drawer. Learn more. The lids do suction well, however, and theyre still easy to peel off thanks to a protruding tab. (Like Pyrex, Snapware is a Corelle brand.) If youre interested in owning both plastic and glass containers for different purposes, using Snapware for both means you wont have to rummage between multiple mismatched lids to find what you need. Nicole Papantoniou, The Best Food Storage Containers, Good Housekeeping, January 22, 2021, Sharon Franke, The Best Food Storage Containers of 2021, Reviewed, February 16, 2021, The Best Food-Storage Containers on Amazon, According to Hyperenthusiastic Reviewers, The Strategist, September 8, 2020, Nancy Hopkins, senior deputy food and entertaining editor for Better Homes & Gardens, phone interview, Faith Durand, executive editor for The Kitchn, email interview, Michele Thomas, then executive editor at the International Culinary Center, email interview, January 28, 2016, Jane Cook, PhD, then chief scientist at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, phone interview, September 15, 2017 and March 16, 2021, William C. LaCourse, PhD, a professor in the Glass Engineering Science department at Alfred University in Alfred, New York, phone interview, September 12, 2017, Heated Glass Comparison, Vitroglazings.com. After testing nine food storage container sets, we recommend the Rubbermaid Brilliance Containers and the Rubbermaid Commercial Containers. We also consulted reviews from Good Housekeeping, The Strategist, Reviewed, and The Spruce Eats. And the Snapware Total Solution set performed admirably in our drop tests: Only a small piece on the corner of the lid broke off, after the third drop. To understand more on how and why this seemingly random breakage occurs, you can check out our blog post on the subject. *At the time of publishing, the price was $16. For those reasons, we think the Snapware set is the best option from our picks if you want to prep your meal ahead and grab your container from the fridge on your way out the door. The lids remained perfectly intact and didnt pop off. Suction lids, by contrast, simply sit atop a bowl or container you already own to cover it. The lids will likely wear down faster than the containers themselves (especially if you run them through the dishwasher), but you can easily get replacements from Pyrex. Since most of our picks have remained consistent over the years, we didnt repeat any drop or thermal shock tests in 2021. Though the gaskets are removable, theyre harder to pry off than the thicker rings on the OXO containerswe accidentally punctured the gasket on one of our Glasslock containers with a butter knife. That said, we think theyre a fine option if our locking plastic pick sells out. Out of all the plastic sets we tested, we recommend the Snapware Total Solution 20-Piece Food Storage Set. Tempered glass does have one downside, however: On rare occasions, it can shatter unexpectedly (this may seem spontaneous, but its usually a result of thermal shock or repeated stress on the glass). If theyre sold out, we also like the OXO Good Grips 16-piece Smart Seal Plastic Container Set, which we discuss in our Competition section. Made from tempered glass, these sturdy containers survived multiple counter-height drops onto wood without breaking. Never subject your glass food storage containers to extreme thermal stresses (such as taking containers from the freezer and placing them directly into a hot oven and vice versa). (Both the 40- and 52-piece sets are not consistently available, but the 32-piece set we link to has a similar combination of many of the pieces weve tested.). The nesting IKEA Pruta set didnt stain or retain smells, and it is easy to pick up if youre already shopping at an IKEA. And we still saw complaints of chipping in the reviews. But they dont come in as many shapes and sizes as the OXO borosilicate set, and the lids dont have a removable gasket for easy cleaning. You can pry the gasket off carefully with a butter knife, then press it back into the ridge of the lid after youve cleaned and dried it. Unlike other glass containers we tested, the Pyrex containers have a smooth rim thats less likely to chip over time, and they look nice enough to use for serving. For a cheap set of containers with press-on lids, we like the IKEA Pruta set, but theyre difficult to get online due to prolonged shipping times or extra costs (ours took three weeks to arrive; IKEA also charges for shipping, which in this case costs almost as much as the containers themselves). And if your current containers are chipped or warped, thats another sign it may be time to replace them. We also thought the container sizes were a little too small for holding leftovers. By upgrading to more-durable glass or plastic food-storage containers, you can be confident that theyll last longer and keep your food fresher (however, because the lids are usually plastic, you may still need to replace the ones that come with glass containers before the containers themselves give out). Finally, we looked for best-selling sets from Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wayfair, Target, IKEA, Williams-Sonoma, Food52, and The Container Store. Weve updated this guide after years of using these container sets in our test kitchen and in our own homes, storing leftovers in the fridge or packing lunches for our commutes. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing to save people time, energy and money when making buying decisions. Pyrex does sell replacement lids if you need them. If you prefer glass (which is odor-resistant and often oven-safe, though heavy), we recommend the durable Pyrex Simply Store 18-Piece Set. (This is why tempered glass is used for side and rear windows in cars and glass shower doors.) You store foods that tend to stain or smell. Glasslock will replace any worn-out or faulty lids free of charge (though youll have to pay a few bucks for shipping). You may be able to prolong the life of your lids by hand-washing them, although it may be inconvenient to do so. Here are our tips and gear recommendations for getting the most out of your freezer. We also appreciated the lids on these containers: They have a thicker gasket thats far easier to remove and wedge back in than the gasket on the Glasslock containers. The flimsy lids in this set also held onto odors more than our picks. This set also held onto food odors and stains more than the competition. Instead of locking on with clips, the flexible Pyrex lids press on, and they dont require as much force to put on or take off. But we dont think this is a dealbreaker because its just a split second of noise; other containers, like the Rubbermaid Brilliance, were louder. We considered how easy each sets containers were to open and close, how well they stacked, and how well their shapes and sizes would work with different types of foods. We tested for leaks by filling containers with water and shaking them, before and after they had run through the dishwasher. ), The Glad MatchWare color-coded lids and containers made matching pairs easy. But we think theyre the best option compared with other budget sets. Weve also read reviews that the containers body chips over time. In our drop tests, the lids on the Rubbermaid TakeAlongs stayed sealed; the lids also didnt leak after we ran the containers through the dishwasher, unlike containers from Ziploc and Glad (these lids are from the 52-piece set). Anna Perling, who performed testing for and wrote our latest update, is a kitchen staff writer who has spent more than four years reviewing food-storage vessels, from travel mugs to food thermoses to lunch boxes.

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