The best non-toxic food storage containers, ranked on what touches the food

What "non-toxic" can and can't mean

There is no "non-toxic" certification for food containers in the US. Any product sold for food contact has to meet FDA food-contact requirements already, so the phrase on a box is a marketing position, not a standard. What it usually signals is one of three concrete things, and all three are checkable:

One: the material in contact with food is inert — tempered or borosilicate glass, stainless steel, or platinum-cured silicone. Two: specific additives are named as absent: BPA, phthalates, PVC, lead. Three: the product is rated for the heat you will actually apply to it, because heat is what mobilises anything that can migrate.

This list ranks on those three, using the makers' own wording. Glasslock says "tempered glass" bodies with "polypropylene" lids and "entire BPA free". ECOlunchbox says "Type 304 stainless" with "non-toxic silicone" lids. Stasher and Ziploc Endurables are platinum silicone, with Ziploc rating its container to 425°F in an oven. Pyrex states tempered glass with BPA-free plastic lids.

What the FDA says about BPA

Practically: if you prefer to avoid plastic food contact, the way to do it is to buy glass, steel or silicone — not to buy plastic labeled BPA-free and feel resolved. "BPA-free" describes one absent compound, not the absence of all additives, and a BPA-free polypropylene tray is still a plastic tray.

The lid is where the plastic hides

Almost every "glass" container is a glass body with a plastic lid. Glasslock's lids are polypropylene with a silicone gasket. Pyrex's Simply Store lids are BPA-free plastic. W&P's Porter bowl is soda-lime glass in a silicone sleeve with a screw-top lid. That is fine — and it is also the honest answer to why a glass set is not a plastic-free set.

If plastic-free is the actual goal, the only two routes here are the steel-and-silicone Seal Cups and the all-silicone options. If reduced plastic contact with hot food is the goal — which is the more common and more defensible version — glass does it completely, because the lid comes off before anything is heated. Every maker here says the lid comes off in the oven, and Glasslock says not to close the lid in the microwave either.

Heat is the variable that matters

Migration from any polymer rises with temperature and with fat content. So the single most useful habit, whatever you own, is to stop heating food in plastic: decant into glass, or buy glass and reheat with the lid off. It costs nothing and it removes the entire question.

The ratings on this page, quoted: Glasslock's oven series to 230°C (446°F), base only. Ziploc Endurables to 425°F in an oven, dishwasher safe on both racks. Stasher platinum silicone to 425°F. ECOlunchbox Seal Cups "dishwasher and oven safe", never microwave. Pyrex Simply Store publishes no oven rating at all on its page, which is why it sits fifth despite being the cheapest way into glass. Full rating-by-rating detail is on microwave, oven and freezer safe explained.

What to swap first

In order of how much it changes: the containers you reheat in (swap to glass), the bags you freeze in (swap to silicone), the container that holds anything acidic or oily for days (glass or steel), and then everything else, whenever the old lids crack.

You do not need to replace a kitchen at once, and there is no health case for throwing out working containers in a hurry. Two glass sets plus a couple of silicone bags covers the reheating and freezing cases, which is where heat and time overlap. For the rest, the glass ranking and steel versus glass decide the details, and the freezer containers page covers the cold end.