I’ve Spent Years Testing Lunchboxes—These 4 Will Keep Your Lunch Safe and Sound 

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• Save 25%: Carhartt Deluxe Dual Compartment Lunch Cooler Bag is 25% off at Amazon.
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You might not consider a lunch box essential until you need to pack 180 school lunches or close to 365 lunches for work. A well-made lunch box that keeps food chilled and intact is often the difference between eating what you packed and ordering lunch again.

I have been reviewing lunch boxes and bags for over a decade, mostly with an eye toward the best bags for kids’ school lunches, including for my own children. Recently, a friend asked for my recommendation for a lunch box that would work well for her daily office meals. While there is some overlap in criteria, what works best for my fifth grader’s backpack doesn’t always work well for a corporate mom. I set to work testing 11 popular lunch boxes to find the best. The winners include a perfect office lunch box, a favorite for commuting that doubles as a cooler on weekends, and a new favorite for the school-aged set.

The Winners, at a Glance

This lunch bag has the insulation power of a cooler but in a compact size. It easily holds leftovers and cans in the main compartment, while an insulated top section is great for delicate extras like crackers or fruit. For outings, you can easily pack a six-pack of drinks in the main compartment and two small sub sandwiches in the top. Carhartt’s lunch bag has a front pocket for utensils, a carrying handle, and an over-the-shoulder strap for commutes. Plus, it folds up neatly for storage.  

Hydro Flask’s laptop-style Carry Out Lunch Box is rigid enough to withstand being tossed around while commuting, and compact enough to keep containers from toppling or spilling. The zipper is smooth and doesn’t stick, which is a boon. While this bag is a little too bulky for young kids, it is an ideal size for middle or high school-aged kids with the locker space to store it. 

This bag is incredibly cool on all fronts. Not only does it hold 10 cans for off-day fun, but the large, rigid design makes it perfect for packing breakfast and lunch for a long day at the office. The zipper-plus-magnet closure is satisfying to use and helps further insulate this efficient cooler bag. The two carry handles and removable shoulder strap are comfortable for commuting, too. One downside of this bag is that a standard sandwich-and-chips lunch will be swimming in the cavernous interior. 

I’ve been using Pottery Barn Teen Bags for my oldest for about five years now, and I was happy to find that it stood up alongside more heavy-duty lunch bags in terms of cold retention and durability. It has a carrying handle, a removable shoulder strap, and a water bottle pocket. This lunch box fits perfectly in a standard backpack, even when packed alongside a Chromebook and an accordion folder. You may want to invest in bento-style containers to use inside this soft-sided bag. 

I wanted to include a paper bag-style lunch bag as a winner, since a fold-and-buckle closure is ideal for preschoolers and kindergarteners who may struggle with tough zipper pulls. This bag was very effective at keeping food cold, and it’s also large enough to fit an adult-sized lunch. 

The Tests

• Can Test: Since some lunch boxes can also work as coolers, I tested how many cans of seltzer and soda each bag could hold, making sure this matched the manufacturer's information.
• Packed Lunch Test: For this test, I packed each bag with a simple lunch of a turkey and cheese sandwich, chips, a seltzer, and an apple. I tested carrying it around my house as well as up and down my steep driveway. Before unpacking the lunch, I tested how easy it was to place the lunchbox into a tote bag and a backpack. 
• Cold Retention Test: I filled each lunch box with two cups of ice and zipped them closed. I kept them at room temperature in my dining room for eight hours (to mimic a workday) and checked the ice every hour. After eight hours, the ice was strained and measured to see how well-insulated each lunch box was.
• Stain and Smell Test: I brushed on a few tablespoons of pasta sauce inside the bags and left them at room temperature for four hours. I then cleaned them and noted if they stained or smelled. 
• Durability Test: With the help of my 10-year-old son, we tested opening and closing the zippers on each bag at least 10 times to see how easy they were to use and how well they held up to repeated use.

What We Learned

Bigger Isn't Always Better

While overall volume is enticing, cavernous lunch boxes struggled with cold retention, and not all lunches benefited from having a roomier main compartment. For example, the Coleman Chiller Series Insulated Portable Soft Cooler and my favorite Carhartt Deluxe Dual Compartment Insulated Lunch Cooler Bag both have similar shapes and dimensions, but the Coleman bag had more crushed chips and sandwiches because it doesn’t have a second interior compartment to protect delicate items. Large, cooler-like lunch boxes, including the Stanley All Day Juilenne Mini Soft Cooler Bag and the YETI Day Trip Lunch Bag, struggled to keep the small amount of ice frozen in my eight-hour retention test. Like a fridge, these bags are more efficient when they are fuller. 

Closure Type Impacts Cold Retention and Access

One of my favorite pieces of advice to parents who are new to packing school lunches is to practice opening and closing lunch bags and boxes with their kids at home. Certain zipper constructions, like the lined version on Hydro Flask 5 L Carry Out Lunch Box and YETI Daytrip Lunch Box, keep foods cold and are watertight, but this style of zipper can be harder to open for young kids. Fold-over and clasp closures are much easier to open but are less efficient at keeping foods insulated. The SUNNY BIRD Insulated Lunch Bag actually outperformed the YETI Day Trip in the cold retention test. 

Compartments and Straps Add Utility to Lunch Boxes

I don’t always think that more bells and whistles make for a better product, but for lunchboxes, more compartments and straps actually make them easier to use. Compartments, like those in the Carhartt and PB Teen lunchboxes, kept delicate foods safe and let you carry water or additional snacks. For commuting, an optional shoulder strap like the ones found on the Carhartt, Stanley, and SUNNY BIRD ensured that backpacks or tote bags weren’t overstuffed and made for more comfortable carrying. 

Most Lunch Boxes are Easy to Clean, But Beware of Seams

None of the lunch boxes I tested is machine-washable, but all wiped clean without staining despite a long sit with tomato sauce on the interior. The really hard-to-clean lunch boxes were those with deep or elaborate seams. While a small bottle brush helps get into crevices, my five winners have minimal interior seams to make cleaning as easy as possible. 

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Lunch Box

While the best lunchbox for you or your kids will ultimately be determined by what you like to pack (e.g., leftovers in food storage containers or a sandwich), there are a few key criteria for a really great lunchbox. Medium-sized lunch boxes (between three and five liters) kept food well insulated while also not being so big that drinks rolled around, crushing food. Soft-sided lunch boxes are easier to store, but rigid lunch boxes are ideal for teens and adults who need to chuck their lunch box inside another bag for commuting. Interior and exterior pockets add luxury to a packed lunch, as you can include extra drinks, utensils, or snacks. Almost all lunch boxes are made from easy-to-clean vinyl, polyester, or nylon. Avoid deep or detailed interior seams since most lunch boxes aren’t machine-washable. 

Our Favorite Lunch Boxes

What we liked: This lunch box from Carhartt is perfect for office commuters and kids and teens, too. It has a five-liter capacity that holds six cans or a couple of leftover containers, plus a roomier upper compartment for keeping extra snacks cold and safe. The exterior pocket is just big enough for a utensil or some napkins. It has a removable shoulder strap for easy toting. 

What we didn’t like: The soft sides that make it easy to store also mean that it can be smooshed or crushed when underfilled and tossed into a bag. It does have some interior mesh and seams that are annoying to clean. 

Key Specs

• Weight: 0.7 pounds
• Dimensions: 10 x 9 x 7 inches
• Materials: 600D water-repellent polyester
• Can capacity: 12

What we liked: This is the lunch box that ultimately fit all the criteria for my corporate mom friend: It’s roomy enough for leftovers, and also uncrushable and leakproof, so she can toss it into her work bag each morning. It holds temperature very well, thanks to the lined zipper, and it can be rinsed out for cleaning. 

What we didn’t like: This is the only winning lunch box without an optional shoulder strap for commuting, though it does have side tabs that can accommodate an aftermarket strap like this paracord one. It didn’t fit well in a standard, kid-sized backpack, given its large size and rigid sides.

Key Specs

• Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.6 x 5 inches
• Materials: Polyester
• Can capacity: 6

What we liked: This is the lunch box that I would buy for myself if I worked in an office because it could hold breakfast, lunch, snacks, and multiple drinks. The zipper makes the lunchbox leakproof, and it has a snappy closure that makes zipping easy. It has two carrying handles, as well as a removable shoulder strap for commuting. This cooler bag would be the perfect size for pool drinks and snacks during summer vacation. It comes in several different fun, eye-catching colors, too. 

What we didn’t like: This cooler bag is cavernous. It’s great for lots of food, but less efficient for smaller, more delicate foods since there are no interior compartments. It also struggled to keep a small amount of ice cold due to its large capacity. It’s also pricey.

Key Specs

• Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Dimensions: 9.45 x 7.87 x 9.84 inches
• Materials: Polyester
• Can capacity: 10

What we liked: My kids have been using Pottery Barn Teen lunch boxes on and off for the last few years, so I know how indestructible they are from backpack to bus stop and beyond. This particular model has a removable divider to keep hard drinks away from delicate foods. It has both a carrying handle and a removable shoulder strap in addition to a drink pocket. Of all the compact, laptop-style lunch boxes I tested, this was the best at keeping food cold. It’s also easy to clean, thanks to the food-safe vinyl lining and shallow seams. 

What we didn’t like: It's not as big or as sturdy as other winners like the Hydro Flask, and your school-aged kids may eventually outgrow it.

Key Specs

• Weight: 0.5 pounds
• Dimensions: 9.25 X 3.75 X 7.75 inches
• Materials: 600-denier, 100% recycled polyester
• Can capacity: 4

What we liked: This roll-top style lunch bag is well insulated and easy to open and close, making it great for kids. Thanks to its soft-sided design, it can expand to fit up to 12 cans or scrunch down to fit a packed lunch and keep it secure. 

What we didn’t like: The clasp closure was hard to unlock at first, but became easier with use.  The tall and narrow design is harder to clean than my other winners.

Key Specs

• Weight: 0.6 pounds
• Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 9 inches
• Materials: Nylon; insulating 3-layer foil
• Can capacity: 12

The Competition

• YETI Daytrip Lunch Box: I found this very similar to the Hydro Flask lunch box in cold retention testing, but the sticky zipper was hard to open and got harder the more I used it. Unlike the Hydro Flask lunch box, which has a small mesh interior pocket, this lunch has no interior compartments; it had more crushed chips than any other lunch box I tested. 
• YETI Day Trip Lunch Bag: While this bag stayed cool and had plenty of room for cans or food, the magnetic closure often got stuck on the short handle. It was also prone to opening when removing it from a bag, making it prone to spilling if not kept completely upright. 
• LL Bean Expandable Lunch Box: While I really liked the thinking behind the design of this bag, the flimsy zippers made it hard to use. It didn’t keep food as cold as other lunch boxes I tested, and it only had one carrying handle for commuting. 
• Baggu Puffy Lunch Bag: The design of this bag wanted to be great: just the right sizing, two carrying handle options, and an easy-to-wipe-clean interior. But the flimsy material was not practical for packing hard and delicate items together, and it didn’t fit well in a tote bag without being crushed. 
• Coleman Chiller Series Insulated Portable Soft Cooler: This bag is over-designed with lots of seams and details that make it annoying to clean. It doesn’t have any interior compartments and is made of flimsy materials.
• Quince Recycled Lunch Box: While Quince hooked me with the cute, clear interior pocket for lunch box love notes, it lost me on interior organization (there is only one tiny mesh pocket) and insulation (of which there is very little).

FAQs

What is the difference between a lunch box and a lunch bag?

The two terms are often used interchangeably by manufacturers. Many of the lunch boxes that I tested might be better labelled lunch bags because they are soft-sided and designed to insulate and transport other food containers. Most lunch boxes have ridged sides and an airtight or locking closure to seal up food. Lunch boxes may or may not have insulation for keeping food cold. Lunch bags are designed for transportation and typically have a zipper or clasp closure as well as insulation. 

Are lunch boxes usually insulated? 

No, but many manufacturers are now insulating lunch boxes so that they can be used with or without an exterior bag for transporting. 

What foods can you put in a lunch box? 

Most foods can be put inside a lunch box depending on its design. Wet foods, like soup or chili, are best stored in leakproof containers such as a food thermos. 

What are the different sizes of lunch boxes?

Lunch boxes and bags vary greatly in size from half a liter up to eight liters, depending on their dimensions and design. For most school or office lunches, a three-to-five-liter range works best. 

What is the best material for a lunch box?

Nylon, polyester, and vinyl are easy-to-clean lunch box materials that are also durable and can be insulating depending on layering and design. 

Why We’re the Experts

• Meghan Splawn is a food writer and recipe developer who has worked in food media since 2006. 
• She worked for 10 years in the test kitchen with Alton Brown.
• She has reviewed oven thermometers, lump charcoal, and grill gloves, among other products, for Serious Eats. 
• Meghan has been reviewing lunch boxes with her two kids since 2017. Her fifth grader insists that his PlanetBox Rover is the best lunch box ever created, and it has lasted a good long while.