Even with waterproof containers, I don't trust that they're perfect. Sometimes, I use a plastic bag with rubber bands. Sometimes I even make two layers of plastic bags. And I still realize I might be cleaning up, but at least with plastic bags, that is reduced.

I eat a lot of soups and stews and when I used to bring lunch to work, I find freezing them into a solid block stopped the leaks. But didn't help with condescension in warm weather. It beat having soup all over my bag. Of course, it helps if there is a microwave at work. I use plastic to transport the food and keep a small ceramic pot in the office for the microwave.

That's what I do with most of my liquid/semisolid food.

Some really good ideas posted. I do want to reiterate a few.
Tupperware beats Gladware for watertight seal.
That being said, the round Gladware with the screw-on lids do seal up quite well.
Ziploc bags are watertight.
Dehydrated foods are lightweight and quite convenient. I bring some of the same stuff I use for bicycle camping.
I do use 1 gallon Ziploc bags to contain any liquid-ish items even if leaking is not expected, (I was struck by a car a few years ago and everything in my bag ended up covered in peach yogurt).

Ham..

Dehydrated food? Why don't we bring a cask of hard tack and salt pork while we're at it?

I carry my stuff in a backpack so I put moist stuff in a Nalgene and then dump into bowl at work to heat up.

hahaha well, where's the woman's lunch bag? did she bring it in? is it still out in the car? does she have two? did she even use it today? maybe it's in the dish washer?

I use the containers u get from the Chinese takeout. Instead of throwing them out I use them and when done with lunch they usually go to the garbage then

Just make sure they are the ones for soup once u put the lid on tight they hardly ever leak

Hit your plastic containers with some non-stick spray before adding food, and it won't stain or smell.

That's not bad. Similar containers for supermarket deli (not canned) soup

Plastic snap-lock containers do not leak. They don't need to be the "snaplock" brand per se--what you want is a container with a lid that has a gasket and tabs that snap around the base. Someone mentioned glass-base snaplock containers upthread--I don't have experience with these myself. I'm a little surprised to learn that they do leak. I understand there are reasons not to microwave in plastic; there are also reasons not to transport glass on a bike, so you need to choose which risk you want to take.

Ziplock containers absolutely do leak. Tupperware is a little better, but not great IME.

There are silicone food-storage bags that all seem to use a slide-on clamping rail to seal them. They're kind of spendy, but they are microwave safe and pretty rugged. I don't have any personal experience using them to transport liquids, but they might be worth checking out.

I also use plastic containers with a rubber gaskets and sides that snap/lock into place. I only bike to work about half the time and don’t usually take lunch when I do (I bring it in advance on drive days). But I regularly take soup in the containers described above in my backpack. The container is rectangular and flat and sits on its end in my backpack. It doesn’t leak but I also use one of those giant travel ziplock bags (not sure how big, bigger than a gallon) as a liner in my backpack just in case.

These look very similar to what I use - also glass, I've had them for about 4 years. No problems although they do get less reliable with age. When it's something with high potential of ruining my clothes (soup, Indian, marinara sauce), I put the container in a 1-gallon zip-lock-like bag. The rectangular 2-cup ones fit perfectly into an Ortlieb pannier, the square 4-cup ones make it bulge but still fit.

Here's a link where you can see the 2-cup (teal) and 4-cup (green) containers: https://www.amazon.com/Snapware-Tota...df_B011L4Q15Q/

I've been using the lock & lock plastics for 2 years now without issue. They are light- a factor when carrying lunch in, and narrow, minimizing storage spacing issues. I carry homemade soup all of the time and have never had a leak. I like these styles for soups and salads because you can shake them to mix up confidence.

Went with salad today on my 18 degree commute-



Leak-proof

I also like the several Pyrex/Borofloat/Duran glass-bottomed ones with plastic lock on lids with a sealing gasket that I have tried. I now have three that I bought here in Sweden at various places over the last 5 years which are more-or-less the same shape and size. The lids aren't interchangeable due to them being from different manufacturers. I have a few others from the same manufacturers, but they're bigger and haven't made any treks by bicycle.

I find that if I pack them when everything is hot, the air gap shrinks volumetrically as it cools, and it helps keep everything under vacuum in a way. Often if I want to open them directly from the fridge I need to pry the edge up with a knife, actually, to release the relatively small level of vacuum before I can open them.

I was trained with good industrial hygiene and safety, so I always have them secondarily contained in another thing like a ziplock bag, which can be re-used many times without a leak. I understand that if I'm in an accident, the bag may rupture. I'm okay with the risk of needing to buy new socks and the potential release of 0,5 liters of chicken broth in a small radius surrounding my corpse.

I only have one bottom and lid from the IKEA stuff, but I like them as well as the others and the idea is perhaps better. One can buy the bottoms and lids separately, and many of the sizes mix-and-match, along with the plastic bottomed ones. If something goes wrong, you don't necessarily need to buy all the parts together again, and perhaps you don't need so many lids in your collection.

I noticed a bento type set at the grocery store last week. It had a freezer pack for a base, a main compartment for the greens with a top level for the salad dressing and other toppings all covered by a lid. It looked very well made and thought out.
https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Lu...65129820&psc=1

Been using a Zojirushi bento jar for 6 years on my commutes. Have bought 2. Occasional leakage in the jar only (not out into the pannier) when I don't screw something on right but works great and is easy to get positioned in a pannier to stay upright. https://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-SL-...gateway&sr=8-2

I use containers like these with a ziplock bag backup. They even have reusable silicon ziplocks now. I just bought one the other day. Anyway I find this style pretty leak proof but I always find there is a little bit of something on the sides that leave things messy. So the ziplock is my just in case.

Also, they need to be stackable to take less storage space. If they don't stack, then they're out for us. We don't like wasted space.

Threadjack? I recently learned that "Pinto" is the Thai variation of the word/concept Bento. There's a nice little Thai restaurant in my town called Pinto that is decorated with a bunch of attractive Pinto sets. I thought it was odd that a Thai restaurant would name itself after a Mexican bean, until I looked it up.

About



BRINGIN IT BACK AROUND --- I don't know how waterproof a set of Pinto lunchboxes would be. There is a clever spring clamp, but there would also have to be rubber or silicone seals.

Don't heat your food in a plastic container. Leached plastic in our food might cause cancer. My cow-orkers thought I was weird for having ceramic and pyrex dishes of my own at work, but I'm not going to eat out of plastic.

I use leftover containers and cheapest disposable tupperwares (that I never dispose of), lids held on w/ rubberbands and then the whole stuffed into a plastic shopping bag. For soupy stuff, I use the leftover containers and take more pain to put it upright into the pannier, although still w/ the rubberbands and outer bag.

(a) I love that you said cow-orkers, I also try to slip that in whenever possible (even verbally)
(b) I love acting contrary to popular 'wisdom', so I enthusiastically microwave food in microwave-safe plastic containers.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-...s/art-20044714

I'm also a big fan of MSG, I eat food (even dairy) way past the date on the package (as long as it smells OK), and I eat glutens all the time.