Safer plastic water bottle and food storage containers

April 25, 2024 8:18 AM

My relative wants to buy new food storage containers and a larger water bottle (64oz) for keeping water in refrigerator. She is concerned about plastics but can not use glass or stainless steel. I am looking for suggestions of the "safest"/"healthiest"plastic containers we could order.

We need a larger water bottle (64oz) for keeping water in the refrigerator and food storage containers.
She is concerned about plastics but can not use glass due to hand shakes that cause her to drop things from time to time. Stainless steel is also likely too heavy.
I'd appreciate any links to specific products we can order.
Please, no comments that there is no safe/healthy plastic. Just looking for the best, practical, options that can meet her needs.
Thank you!

posted by fies to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

There are fairly lightweight stainless steel water storage bottles for camping.
posted by amtho at 8:32 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]

Titanium is a very lightweight but expensive alternative.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:35 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

Around here people who don’t want plastic are using silicone bags like the brand Stasher, although there are many knockoffs from other brands (I think I saw a gladware branded similar bag at my local Safeway, and trader joes’ sells some too). You can store food and heat food in them. They are too floppy for water though!
posted by holyrood at 8:47 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]

Given that water bottles get their weight mostly from the water in them, the weight of the bottle itself should not matter much if your friend can lift the water inside it! Right? What your friend might consider is sizing down from 64oz. to a more manageable size for her ability to handle the bottle. How about a 40 oz? How about TWO 40 oz bottles?

Klean Kanteen makes a steel water bottle that weighs just 9oz for the 40oz capacity version. That's the same weight as a standard plastic Nalgene 38oz. or other standard plastic bottles of that size, actually. Steel is better than plastic.
posted by MiraK at 9:00 AM on April 25 [11 favorites]

For water specifically, could they consider a large glass container with a spout/spigot that could be refilled from, preferably with a handle for easy lifting when it's empty and needs to be refilled? Something like this, maybe?
posted by Teadog at 9:52 AM on April 25

Three of these aluminum 20-oz water bottles?

For something that's 64 oz, I'd certainly want a handle, like this one. The specs say it only weighs .7 oz, but I find that hard to believe. Maybe 7 oz is possible though.
posted by hydra77 at 9:54 AM on April 25

OXO's Pop container line is BPA-free.

Silicone bags are lightweight, forgiving of being dropped, and washable. We have Stasher and Zip Top bags and we like them both.

If hand strength is the only issue that prevents her using glass, perhaps a carafe with a spigot would solve for that issue?
posted by fifthpocket at 9:55 AM on April 25

I just linked to these in another thread, but these are excellent containers.

And if you're fine with silicone, there are water bottles available.
posted by dobbs at 10:10 AM on April 25

I don't know of any links, but when I'm in the market for anything plastic, I look carefully at the country of origin. I don't trust the US or China. I recognize that this is a blanket ban, not all Chinese products, etc., but I don't always have the spoons to do further research. Therefore, I have decided that if the plastic bottle is made in Europe, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, it's probably as safe as it can be. It's going to cost a bit more, but I feel better about it. My other suggestion is going on down to the local health food store and buying it there. Both of mine sell big water bottles for fridge use as well and in fact I just bought one with a tap in it that's specifically designed for the fridge. Then you can bring them along to the store to refill from their filtered water spigot as well, cheap and handy.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:14 PM on April 25

Ironically, things labeled "BPA-free" are often unsafe, because they just swapped BPA for BPS which is obviously safe because we don't have results saying it's unsafe (we didn't test it either...)

Want you want is something made of Polyethylene. These are commonly labeled PE, LDPE, HDPE, or UHMW-PE. If they're made of virgin plastic (no recycled content) they won't have plasticizers or phthalates or bisphenols simply because they're unnecessary for manufacturing and not present in the feedstock, while polycarbonate, epoxies, and PVC all require some of those toxic substances to be created.

I think polypropylene (PP) is also safe, but I haven't done much research and also have enough polyethylene options I haven't cared to fully investigate.

Anything with recycled inputs is contaminated with plasticizers and shouldn't be in contact with food.

Aluminum soda cans are coated with epoxy on the inside, as are regular cans of food. If they don't have BPA, then they have a different, untested bisphenol.

I think silicone is also safe, but it's much more complicated of a substance than PE that I don't trust it completely, but to my knowledge it doesn't require anything toxic that could end up in the final product so it probably can be clean.

That all being said, can you use 1/2 gallon milk jugs? They're PE and in ready supply.
posted by flimflam at 10:02 PM on April 25 [1 favorite]