Best Glass Food Storage Containers with Glass Lids: 5 Sets I Tested (2026)

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Updated September 13, 2026

I replaced all of my plastic food storage containers about two years ago. I switched to glass because I did not want chemicals leaching into my food every time I reheated leftovers. But here is the annoying part: most sets marketed as non-toxic glass food storage containers still come with plastic lids. And when you microwave food in a glass container with a plastic lid on top, that lid is sitting directly in the steam path, getting hot and potentially releasing the same microplastics and endocrine disruptors you were trying to avoid.

That sent me down a research rabbit hole, as I am prone to do! I wanted to find glass food storage containers with glass lids, no plastic anywhere and I quickly discovered that this is harder than it should be. Many brands market their products as “glass lids” when the lid is a glass panel set inside a plastic or silicone frame. Some are plastic free. Others are not. And almost no one explains the difference.

So I ordered five different sets, examined every lid closely and put together this guide to help you figure out which glass food storage containers are worth buying if your goal is to get plastic out of your kitchen.

About the author: I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal Nourish Grow, where I have been publishing evidence-based health and nutrition research since 2017. My background is in psychology, with a focus on how everyday choices affect long-term health. I have personally tested dozens of PFAS free cookware products in my own kitchen and I apply the same level of scrutiny to food storage.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

Why Plastic Lids Are the Weak Link in Your “Healthy” Kitchen

Switching from plastic containers to glass is a great first step. But if you are reheating food with a plastic lid on top, you may still be exposing yourself to the very chemicals you were trying to eliminate.

A 2023 study published in Environmental Science and Technology found that microwaving plastic food containers released up to 4.22 million microplastic and 2.11 billion nanoplastic particles per square centimeter of plastic in just three minutes. Even refrigeration and room temperature storage over several months released millions to billions of particles. The researchers concluded that the highest release occurred during microwave heating, which is exactly the scenario where most people leave a plastic lid on their glass container.

The concern does not stop at microplastics. Many plastic lids on glass containers are made from polypropylene (PP) and are marketed as “BPA free.” But research published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that the common BPA replacements, bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF), are hormonally active at the same order of magnitude as BPA itself. The label “BPA free” gives the impression that a product is safe, but as a review in Diabetes and Metabolism Journal put it, “the safety of the substitutes is not fully verified.” These chemicals are structurally similar to BPA and show similar endocrine disrupting effects in studies.

This is why I went looking for glass food storage containers with real glass lids instead of plastic ones. If you have already made the switch to PFAS free cookware and you understand what PFAS are and why they matter, this is the logical next step for your kitchen.

Are Glass Containers With Plastic Lids Safe?

A plastic lid on a glass container is fine for cold storage in the refrigerator and it is the wrong choice the moment heat is involved. That is the short answer and it is more useful than a blanket yes or no.

Here is the reasoning. Chemical migration from plastic is driven mostly by temperature, time and fat content. In the fridge, a snap lid barely touches the food, the temperature is low and migration is slow. That is a low exposure scenario and it is not what I would lose sleep over. The microwave is a different situation entirely. The lid sits in the steam path, it is the hottest plastic surface in the container and the study above measured particle release in the millions within three minutes of microwave heating.

So if you already own a cupboard full of glass containers with plastic lids, you do not need to throw them out. Keep them for fridge and pantry storage, take the lid off before anything goes in the microwave and cover the food with a glass and silicone microwave splatter guard instead. That single habit removes most of the exposure without costing you anything.

Buying new is where the material choice matters. If you are replacing containers anyway, a glass lid or a silicone framed glass lid costs a few dollars more per container and takes the decision off your plate permanently. For the wider picture on where these compounds show up beyond the kitchen, I covered that in my guide to endocrine disruptors and where they hide.

What “Glass Lids” Are Really Made Of: A Closer Look

This is the section that most product roundups skip entirely, and it is the most important thing to understand before you buy.

When a brand says “glass lid,” that can mean several different things. In most cases, the lid is a glass panel set inside a frame made from another material. The frame is what creates the seal and holds the lid together. Sometimes the frame is silicone (good). Sometimes it contains polypropylene or another type of plastic (not ideal if your goal is to eliminate plastic contact with food). The brands are rarely transparent about this.

I went through the product specifications, manufacturer materials pages and Amazon listings for every brand I tested. Here is what I found.

*Caraway describes their food storage as “free from BPA, black plastics, and forever chemicals” but never uses the phrase “plastic free.” Their lids are listed as “not microwave safe,” which is unusual for a pure glass and silicone lid. Amazon's material filters list plastic as a material component. After examination, the colored lid frame appears to be a BPA free plastic rather than silicone. If you're not going to use the lid in the microwave, this may not matter to you if you prefer the sleek look and colors of Caraway.

The important distinction here is that silicone is not plastic. Silicone is derived from silica (sand and quartz), not petroleum. It does not contain BPA, BPS, BPF, phthalates or the other endocrine disrupting chemicals found in plastics. Food grade platinum silicone, which is what the best brands use for their lid seals, is one of the safest food contact materials available. When you see “glass lid with silicone frame” on a product, that is a plastic free design. When you see “glass lid with BPA free lid” and no mention of being plastic free, that is worth investigating further.

Important note about Bentgo: Bentgo makes two different product lines with glass lids and the materials are different. The Bentgo Signature line (what I tested) uses borosilicate glass containers with tempered glass lids framed in silicone only. It is explicitly marketed as PFAS free and plastic free. The older Bentgo Glass Leak-Proof line uses PP plastic locking clips on the lids. Amazon lists its materials as “Borosilicate Glass Base, Tempered Glass Lids, PP Plastic, Silicone.” If you are shopping for Bentgo, make sure you are buying the Signature line.

Are Silicone Lids Safe? What the Migration Research Shows

Silicone is the best lid sealing material you can buy right now and it is not completely inert. Both of those things are true and almost every non-toxic shopping guide tells you only the first half.

Silicone is built from repeating silicon and oxygen units and the short ones, called cyclic siloxanes, can migrate out into food. A 2025 migration study in Food Additives and Contaminants Part A tested platinum silicone moulds against real food rather than the usual lab simulants. The manufacturing step called post-curing made most of the difference: for the smaller siloxanes, migration into shortcrust pastry dropped from 153 mg/kg in a non-post-cured mould to 9.5 mg/kg in a post-cured one. The larger oligomers behaved differently and migrated almost regardless of post-curing and one three-cycle test reached 167 mg/kg total siloxanes, above the 60 mg/kg overall migration limit European regulators apply. Migration also happened at moderate temperature, not only in the oven, with 21.5 mg/kg transferring during a chocolate preparation held at 113F and below.

An earlier study in Food Chemistry put silicone baking moulds through baking at 347F, microwaving at 800 watts and freezing, then identified 18 different silicone oligomers in the migration tests. The useful finding for the rest of us is that prior baking treatments reduced the amount of oligomer available to migrate.

Now the honest caveat, because this is where I part company with both the silicone enthusiasts and the silicone alarmists. Both studies tested baking moulds, where the entire surface of the food sits against a large sheet of silicone, often at oven temperature, for a long time. A lid gasket is a thin ring of silicone touching food only at the rim, usually for two minutes in a microwave. Nobody has measured a lid seal specifically, so I cannot give you a number for the thing you are buying. What I can tell you is that the exposure is not remotely comparable and that silicone still beats a sheet of polypropylene sitting in the steam path.

What this changes in practice: look for platinum cured silicone rather than peroxide cured, favor brands that mention post-curing or carry LFGB certification and give new silicone a run through a hot dishwasher cycle or a low oven before first use. That last one is the practical version of what the Food Chemistry authors measured. None of it is a reason to avoid silicone seals. It is a reason to stop treating “it's silicone, so it's inert” as a finished argument.

Glass vs Plastic Food Storage: What Changes

Glass wins on every measure except weight and breakage. If you are deciding whether the switch is worth the money, that is the trade in one sentence.

Plastic keeps two honest advantages and they are both about handling rather than health. It is lighter, which matters if you are carrying lunch every day or packing for a child, and it does not shatter. That is why I still keep a few plastic containers for travel and why I do not think anyone needs to purge their kitchen in a weekend. Use glass for anything that gets heated, anything acidic and anything that lives in the fridge for days. Keep plastic for the situations where weight and durability are the whole point.

What to Look for in Non-Toxic Food Storage

Here is the framework I use when evaluating food storage containers. This applies whether you are buying glass, silicone or stainless steel.

Glass type matters. Borosilicate glass is the gold standard for food storage. It is more resistant to thermal shock than soda-lime glass (which is what most cheap glass containers and older Pyrex products use). Borosilicate can go from freezer to oven without cracking, which means you can use the same container for meal prep, storage and reheating. All five brands I tested use borosilicate glass for the container body.

Lid material hierarchy. If your goal is to minimize chemical exposure from your food storage, here is how I rank lid materials from safest to least ideal: glass with platinum silicone seal (best), bamboo with silicone seal (good, but not microwave safe), BPA free plastic with silicone gasket (acceptable but still plastic) and standard plastic snap lids (what most people are upgrading from).

Certifications to look for. FDA food grade is the baseline standard in the US. LFGB certification (the German food safety standard) is stricter and tests for migration of harmful substances at levels the FDA does not require. Products that meet LFGB standards tend to use higher quality silicone with less odor and greater durability. If a product lists LFGB or the “knife and fork” symbol, that is a good sign.

Watch for the “BPA free” trap. As the research I cited above shows, BPA free does not mean endocrine disruptor free. The replacement chemicals BPS and BPF have been found to be hormonally active at comparable levels to BPA, with links to metabolic disruption, obesity and reproductive effects. If a brand says “BPA free” but does not say “plastic free,” that is a meaningful difference.

If you prefer to shop on Amazon, all of the storage options are linked here. It is worth checking the links below too, because I was able to get a discount for you on some of them.

The 5 Best Glass Food Storage Containers I Tested

These are the best non toxic glass food storage containers I found after taking apart every lid, ranked by how much plastic is left in the design rather than how the set photographs.

Ziruma (Best Fully Plastic Free Option)

If your number one priority is zero plastic contact with your food, Ziruma is the cleanest option I found. The container is borosilicate glass. The lid is borosilicate glass. The seal is platinum silicone. Even the packaging is plastic free. There is no petroleum based material anywhere in this product.

Ziruma offers multiple size options (12 oz, 21 oz, 35 oz and 50 oz) sold in packs of 2 or 4. I ordered the 2.6 cup (21 oz) 4 pack, which is a great size for individual meal portions, overnight oats or storing leftover protein from dinner.

Materials: Borosilicate glass body, borosilicate glass lid, platinum silicone seal

Safe for: Microwave, oven, freezer, dishwasher

Certifications: BPA free, phthalate free, 100% plastic free (including packaging)

Best for: Anyone who wants the most conservative, zero-plastic food storage option available

Worth noting: These are heavier than containers with plastic lids. That is the tradeoff for having a glass lid. Not ideal for throwing in a lunch bag if weight is a concern.

Shop Ziruma

or purchase Ziruma on Amazon

Bentgo Signature (Best Value Glass Lid Set)

The Bentgo Signature line is the best value I found for plastic free glass food storage. The 8 piece set (4 containers, 4 lids) runs around $43 and gives you four different sizes: 1.6 cup, 2.7 cup, 4.4 cup and 6.3 cup. That is a full kitchen setup in one purchase.

The containers are borosilicate glass. The lids are tempered glass panels set in a silicone frame with a built-in VentSmart steam valve for microwave venting. Bentgo explicitly lists the Signature line materials as “Borosilicate Glass (Container), Tempered Glass (Lid Panel), Silicone (Lid Frame and Steam Valve).” No plastic. They also market it as PFAS free and plastic free and it comes with a 2 year manufacturer warranty.

Materials: Borosilicate glass body, tempered glass lid panel, silicone lid frame and steam valve

Safe for: Microwave (with vent open), oven (up to 950F for glass), freezer, dishwasher

Certifications: PFAS free, plastic free, BPA free, 2 year warranty

Best for: Anyone who wants a complete set at a reasonable price point without compromising on materials

Worth noting: Do not confuse the Signature line with the older Bentgo Glass Leak-Proof line, which uses PP plastic clips on the lids. The Signature line is the plastic free version.

Shop Bentgo Signature on Amazon

Urban Green (Best for Everyday Use)

Urban Green is one of the most recommended brands in the non-toxic living community and for good reason. They have been focused on eliminating plastic from food storage longer than most of the brands on this list. Their containers use borosilicate glass with semi-tempered glass lids framed in silicone and they are marketed as 100% plastic free.

The standout feature is the air vent design built into the silicone lid frame. You can microwave with the lid on as long as the vent is open, which eliminates the need to remove the lid or cover your food with a paper towel. That may sound like a small convenience, but when you are reheating leftovers every day it makes a real difference.

I ordered the 3 pack with glass lids. One nice thing about these is that the lids stack nicely. Urban Green also offers square and rectangle options in various sizes, plus a stainless steel container line with glass lids.

Materials: Borosilicate glass body, semi-tempered glass lid panel, silicone frame with air vent

Safe for: Microwave (with vent open), oven (body only, lid not oven safe), freezer, dishwasher

Certifications: 100% plastic free, BPA free

Best for: Daily use, especially if you microwave leftovers frequently

Shop Urban Green on Amazon

Caraway (Best Ceramic Coated Premium Set)

I have tested and reviewed Caraway's cookware extensively and their ceramic coating technology is excellent for non-stick performance without PFAS. Their food storage line applies that same ceramic coating to borosilicate glass containers, which means food does not stick, stains are easier to clean and you get a non-toxic cooking surface that is oven safe up to 450F. If you want to see how a coated ceramic surface compares to solid ceramic over time, I broke that down in my Xtrema pure ceramic review.

Where Caraway gets complicated is the lids. Caraway markets their food storage as “free from PTFE, PFOA, PFAS, and BPA.” They say the lids are glass. But they do not use the phrase “plastic free” on their food storage line and the lids are listed as “not microwave safe,” which is unusual for a product with purely glass and silicone lids. The colored frame around each lid appears to contain a BPA free plastic component rather than being pure silicone.

I also want to note that the larger Caraway sets include small “Dot and Dash” containers that are explicitly described as BPA free plastic with plastic lids. These nest inside the glass containers and are included as accessories. If you are buying a Caraway set specifically to go plastic free, be aware that some of the pieces in the box are plastic.

Materials: Borosilicate glass body with ceramic coating, glass lid with colored frame (BPA free plastic), silicone gasket

Safe for: Microwave, oven (up to 450F), freezer, dishwasher (lids not microwave safe)

Certifications: Free from PTFE, PFOA, PFAS, BPA. Third party tested for 200+ PFAS types and 20+ heavy metals. CA AB1200 compliant.

Best for: Anyone who values premium design, non-stick ceramic coating for easy cleaning and is comfortable with a BPA free (but possibly not fully plastic free) lid

Worth noting: Caraway is the most expensive option on this list but also the best looking. If kitchen aesthetics matter to you and you already own Caraway cookware, the color-matched food storage is hard to beat.

Shop Caraway

EcoPreps (Best Bamboo Lid Option)

EcoPreps takes a different approach entirely. Instead of glass lids, they use bamboo lids with a silicone seal ring. The containers are borosilicate glass. The result is a product that is 100% plastic free but lighter than an all glass lid design.

The bamboo lids are arguably the most attractive option on this list. They have a warm, natural look that stands out from the clinical transparency of glass lids. Several reviewers have noted that the bamboo lids double as small cutting boards, which is a nice bonus for meal prep.

Materials: Borosilicate glass body, bamboo lid, silicone seal ring

Safe for: Microwave (body only, remove bamboo lid), freezer, dishwasher (body only, hand wash lids)

Certifications: 100% plastic free, BPA free

Best for: Pantry storage, dry goods and anyone who wants a natural aesthetic in their kitchen. Also good if you primarily store food in the fridge and reheat by removing the lid.

Worth noting: Bamboo lids need to be hand washed and allowed to dry completely. Over time, bamboo can absorb moisture and potentially develop mold if stored wet. For daily meal prep where you are microwaving with the lid on, glass lids are more practical. For fridge and pantry storage, bamboo works beautifully.

Shop EcoPreps on Amazon

Cost Comparison: Non-Toxic Glass Storage by Price

One of the most common objections to glass food storage with glass lids is the price. It is more expensive than a set of plastic containers from the grocery store. But when you compare these sets to each other and factor in how long glass lasts versus how often plastic containers need to be replaced, the math changes.

Here is how these brands compare on price. I normalized the comparison as much as possible, but these sets come in different sizes and configurations so a perfect apples-to-apples comparison is tricky. I have included the approximate price per container and noted the lid type and plastic free status for each. Prices are based on what I paid or current retail at the time of writing and may fluctuate.

The bottom line: you can outfit your kitchen with plastic free glass food storage for roughly $30 to $80 depending on how many containers you need and which brand you choose. Bentgo Signature offers the best value for a complete set. Ziruma offers the most flexibility to buy individual sizes. Caraway is the premium investment. And if you are just testing the concept before committing to a full set, a single Urban Green 3 pack or EcoPreps bamboo 3 pack is a low risk way to start.

What About Stainless Steel?

Stainless steel food storage is another excellent non-toxic option, especially if you need something unbreakable for travel, kids' lunches or taking food on the go. Brands like Sustainable Containables, U-Konserve and Tavva make stainless steel containers with silicone lids that are completely plastic free.

The tradeoff with stainless steel is that you cannot see what is inside without opening the lid and most stainless steel containers are not microwave safe (a few newer designs from Urban Green and others pair stainless steel bodies with glass lids to solve both problems). Stainless steel is best as a complement to glass in your kitchen rather than a full replacement.

I will be covering silicone food storage bags (another good plastic free option for freezer storage, meal prep and snacks) in a separate article. If you are building out a fully non-toxic kitchen, that piece will connect directly to this one.

How I Use These in My Kitchen

If you are just getting started with non toxic glass food storage containers, my recommendation is to pick one set with glass lids and use them for a month before replacing everything. You will quickly learn which sizes you reach for most, whether the weight bothers you and how the cleaning fits into your routine. Then you can expand from there.

For more on reducing your overall toxic load in the kitchen, explore my PFAS free cookware guide, my article on whether enameled cast iron is safe and my roundup of the best non-toxic air fryers, which is the appliance most people ask about next.

How I Keep This Guide Current

I re-check the lid materials and pricing on every set in this guide twice a year, because brands quietly change lid construction between production runs and a set that was plastic free last year is not guaranteed to be plastic free today. Where a claim comes from a brand's own materials page rather than something I could confirm by handling the product, I say so in the text. If you spot a spec that has changed, tell me in the comments and I will verify it and update the table.

Last updated: September 2026