Packed Lunch Containers That Survive a Backpack: 5 Picks

The 4.1-cup divided container is the one to own if you only own one. Three compartments take rice and a protein and a vegetable, or soup on one side and salad on the other, and each compartment has its own silicone gasket in the lid so sauces stay where you put them. Two clips lock the whole thing. It stacks with the rest of the range in the fridge, so Sunday prep for five days takes one shelf. The compartments are fixed, so you cannot make one bigger for a one-dish lunch, and the 4.1-cup total is a lunch, not a dinner. Microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe.

The sandwich container is a square box sized for two slices of store-bought bread with a tall filling, and its only purpose is to stop the sandwich getting crushed and the tomato getting everywhere. The single gasket and two clips make it as leakproof as the rest of the range, which matters more than it sounds once there is a juicy filling involved. It does one thing, so it is the wrong buy if your lunches vary. It also will not take a long roll or a full wrap unfolded, and there is no room for a side, which is what the snack-and-dip cup below is for.

Soggy salad comes from dressing and wet toppings sitting on greens for hours. This container puts a shallow removable tray above the greens for the chicken, the cheese or the dressing cup, so nothing touches the leaves until you tip it in at your desk. The lid seals with the same gasket and clips, and the two levels mean it also works as soup-and-crackers or oatmeal-and-toppings. The trade-off is depth: the tray takes headroom, so a big salad has to be packed loosely, and the container is taller than the divided box when stacked. If you never eat salad from a container, skip it.

The snack-and-dip container is 1.6 cups in total with a small lidded cup inside for hummus, dressing or yogurt, and space around it for carrots, crackers or fruit. It is the piece that stops a kid's lunch bag from becoming a hummus bag, and it works just as well for an adult afternoon snack. The window in the lid shows what is inside without opening it, which helps in a full fridge. It is small: this is a side, not a meal, and the inner cup holds a couple of tablespoons, so it is not the container for a big portion of anything liquid.

None of the containers above keeps food cold, and a lunch that sits at room temperature until one o'clock is the actual risk in this list. The ice pack set is two flat, dual-compartment packs that bend around a container instead of sitting beside it as a brick, so they cool the whole box and take no extra room in the bag. Freeze them overnight, wrap them around the lunch in the morning, wipe them down at night. They are hand wash only and, like every ice pack, they lose their cold over a long hot afternoon, so a bag with some insulation still helps.