The Lunch box challenge

Foodinabox
Aug 28, 2017 · 8 min read

As part of our summer #foodboxfun challenge we’ve been testing out four different types of lunchbox/bag all week. I’ve involved all of the family to try them out in a week of picnics.

It’s been a really fascinating experience, sometimes slightly brain challenging (think Tetris with food) but opened up more possibilities for food type and we’ve had lots of fun.

We have tried out a variety of boxes and bag, which I’ve chosen to reflect the range of options when you go beyond a standard box or zipped lunch bag.

We tested out:

  • Sistema Bento box,
  • JosephJoseph Space saving lunch and salad boxes,
  • Yumbox,
  • Boc’n’roll reusable sandwich wrapper.

Our first try out was with the Sistema Bento box. It’s widely available in the U.K. and as ever has an impeccable build quality.

Sistema Bento Box

As you’ll know, we are huge fans of Sistema and had many of their boxes for years. This box was different in that it had predefined compartments, removable trays and an optional yogurt pot. It was the largest box we tried and with removable components gave lots of flexibility.

We’ve not used predefined compartments before, I tend to stick to open boxes of varying sizes that I can fill neatly to prevent food moving around. Having predefined compartments requires thought around best placement and the types of food suited to each area. And I must say it’s taken a bit of getting used to. That said, you start to get into a routine and it does really motivate you into covering all of the food groups. We found the bottom section fits a sandwich nicely, so you can have more of a traditional packed lunch. We tended to remove the yogurt pot for our picnics and use the space for other food, but I could see it being really useful for breakfast on the go or those wanting a dessert option.

Sistema Bento box filled with food
Sistema Bento Lunch Boxes filled with a variety of food

Our findings:

  • It’s a large box and best suited to an adult for portion size, we used it on one occasion between my husband and I, with sandwiches wrapped separately. That worked really nicely and was great for packing light.
  • The flexibility of the removable trays and hiding a sweet treat at the bottom is great,
  • It’s easy to clean and goes straight in the dishwasher,
  • Usability is great, it’s well built and easy for small fingers to open, close and lift the trays.

Overall, its a great flexible lunchbox which will be really useful on family days out when we need a larger box.

Our second lunchbox was a Yumbox, which is more of a traditional styled Bento lunchbox. There are different sizes and styles available. We tried the box designed for preschoolers to aged 8, my eldest son who’s 5 jumped at the chance to try it out.

It’s a hard plastic box, far slimmer than most lunch boxes, which has a hinged lid. Inside the lid contained a fixed rubber insert which neatly matched the removable tray in the bottom of the box. It was marketed as leak proof and designed to contain food stuffs in each of the compartments without them mixing. The tray has space themed images in each compartment and helpfully labelled with each of the main food categories.

Yumbox filled with food

We had a lot of fun with this box and my son has given it a big thumbs up. I thought it would be limiting because of the layout, but it has been really well thought out. It doesn’t have an obvious place for a sweet treat but then we didn’t always put the correct food group in it’s allocated place!

Our findings:

  • The box is well designed to support portion size and provides a great reinforcement to include the right food groups and in the correct proportion. My son also started to read the labels on the tray and it instigated discussions about healthy eating. This can only be a really great thing and will lead him to decide what to include in each section.
  • I had to think about chopping size to ensure a food fitted, and it won’t easily fit a sandwich- though there are other styles which fit a sandwich in perfectly.
  • The flexibility of the removable tray makes it easy to clean and it goes straight in the dishwasher,
  • Usability is great, it’s well built and easy for small fingers to open and close.
  • It was leak proof, even when we tried it with salad cream as a dip which is very liquid.

Overall, its a great lunch box for primary school aged children, and with other sizes and styles available, you are sure to find a style to suit you.

The third lunch box we tried was by JosephJoseph, a British design classic. Rather than Bento designed, these boxes are designed to be assembled in two different ways to enable smaller storage when not in use or on your way home from work.

I have to admit, it took a bit of playing with to work out how it should be fitted back together to change it from packed small to full sized. However, once I had got the hang of it, it was easy to use and the rubber lid for the top layer was flexible. We used two different sizes- the regular lunchbox and the salad box which is the slightly smaller one.

The design of these boxes are more akin to a regular lunch box without much separation. To aid separation I found it helpful to use silicon cupcake cases, for example for grapes, blueberries, cheese cubes etc. These are boxes designed very much for an adult and I really enjoyed using each of these for my lunches. I was able to use both layers to each box or just one of the layers for a snack or as a baby bento box for my youngest son.

JosephJoseph Lunch box and Salad Box

Our findings:

  • The box layout was great for flexibility in terms of sandwiches with vegetables and fruit. I used silicon cup cases where I wanted separation.
  • These boxes are a lot easier to fit food into and I really found it helpful to be able to use just one of the two layers.
  • The easy break down of the component parts makes it easy to clean and it goes straight in the dishwasher,
  • Usability is great, it’s well built and easy to open and close, though the lid is well fitting and it takes a bit of time to work out the different layout permutations between packed small and full sized.

Overall, its a great lunch box for adults, has a lovely look and feel; and the layout combinations provide great flexibility for most food types.

Our final try out was not a box, but a reusable sandwich wrapper. Made by Boc’n’Roll, it’s a fabric wrap which rolls up around your roll, wrap or sandwich and then holds together with velcro. I’d not tried anything like this before and was intrigued how practical it was going to be to use and clean afterwards.

Boc’n’Roll sandwich wrapping

I tried it out first on a round of granary sandwiches and it worked a treat. It kept them fresh and held securely; and then when we wanted to eat them, they had their own ‘plate’ to eat them from. Very quick to fold back up again, it was easy to clean — dishwasher or handwash, then hang up to dry. It felt great not to be throwing away a sandwich bag, cling film or foil.

I next tried it out on a wrap, having just one wrap in it proved to be too small a quantity for the velcro, to keep it wrapped tight, but by adding in a frozen cool pack as part of the roll up, it rolled up perfectly and meant my wrap was kept lovely and cool too, perfect then for throwing into my bag, for lunch on the go.

I was really surprised at how well the reusable wrap worked and it has become a firm favourite now at home.

Our findings:

  • Does what it says, though you need a reasonable quantity of food to ensure the velcro can be attached.
  • Keeps food fresh and holds securely.
  • Easy to wash and dry, quick to refold and takes very little space to store.

Four different products and four great results. It’s been a very busy and thought provoking week. We’ve all really enjoyed having some #foodboxfun and I really hope it’s inspired you to have a great lunch box. We’ll continue to post on our Instagram and Facebook platforms as we continue to use these products to make great lunches.

Now onto the next challenge, packing a lunch like a ninja…I can not wait!!!

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Foodinabox

Written by

Sharing my passion for great food in a box, lunchboxes and picnics are my thing, but carefully balanced with other boxed food,…. pizza, chocolate….

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