Rubbermaid Brilliance BPA Free 44-Piece Food Storage Containers Set Airtight Leak-Proof with Lids for Meal Prep Lunch and Leftovers

Why it's worth it

A 44-piece Tritan plastic set with four locking tabs and a silicone gasket on every lid, plus a vent you flip open to microwave without unlidding. It's the set to carry, and it resists the stains that ruin ordinary plastic.

If you carry lunch, buy this one. The lids clamp shut with four tabs onto a silicone seal, and America's Test Kitchen found four-tab designs leaked essentially not at all when tilted to 45 degrees, while two-tab lids leaked badly. Chili, dressing, soup — put it in a bag and forget about it. That confidence is the whole reason to own plastic instead of glass.

Tritan is the reason this doesn't look grim after a month. Serious Eats found no visible staining after twenty rounds of tomato sauce, where standard polypropylene stained within three. Consumer Reports also confirmed no BPA leaching from Tritan containers after repeated microwave cycles, which answers the question most people are actually asking when they hesitate about plastic.

From our review of 8 meal prep containers, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +If you carry lunch, buy this one
• +Tritan is the reason this doesn't look grim after a month
• +The vent in each lid flips open so you can microwave with the lid on
• +Forty-four pieces is a lot of containers across a lot of sizes, and the pieces nest when empty and stack squarely when full

What to know

• –No oven. The glass picks let you bake and reheat in the same dish; this set stops at the microwave
• –The locking tabs need a deliberate press, and the gasket has to be seated right