Ziploc 2 Cup storage container Review

Like just about everyone else, we have leftovers on a regular basis and need a way to conveniently store and re-serve them. Sometimes it's leftover food that we cooked ourselves and sometimes it's extras that we carry home from a restaurant in a doggie bag. Either way, it has to be stored, managed, and usually re-heated and served. Containers that make this process easy are my friends.

This container is made by Ziploc, the company that became famous for its easy-to-seal plastic bags. It has a storage capacity of two cups (16 ounces or 473 ml) and it consists of a lower bowl-shaped section of translucent plastic and a screw-on lid of blue plastic. Both are made from polypropylene, a somewhat slippery-feeling plastic that has been around for years.

This Ziploc 2 Cup container is claimed by the manufacturer to be microwave safe and dishwasher safe, and I have used it many times in the microwave with no major problems. I always hand wash it, but can see no reason why it would be a problem in a dishwasher.

There are a couple things about this container that I really like. First, the lid screws on and will not pop off accidentally. If a sealed container slips out of my fingers and falls to the floor, the lid will not pop off. Also, since the container is bowl-shaped, it does not have corners where the food is hard to dig out. Finally, there is a wide lip under the rim of the bowl that lets me carry the bowl easily even after food has been heated a little too hot in the microwave. The bowl itself can be hotter than heck, but the wide lip makes it easy to carry -- although it takes two hands.

On the downside, the polypropylene plastic can be permanently damaged if you heat food a little too high. The bowl pictured above already has permanent scorch marks from overheated food. You also have to remember to unscrew the lid before heating in the microwave. If you don't unscrew the lid, you could have quite the bomb. Finally, my hands are just about big enough to easily screw/unscrew the lid. Any child younger than 12 will probably find it very difficult or even impossible to manage the lid. It takes at least an average-sized adult female hand to easily open this container.

If you're not careful, you could mis-thread the lid and have it not seal tightly. On the other hand, a few of these things stack neatly in the fridge or on a shelf. I had one of these shatter when I took some frozen leftovers out of the freezer and the container slipped from my fingers. Overall though, I find these Ziploc 2 Cup containers easy to use for both storage and re-heating. The mostly clear plastic makes it easy to see what's in the container without opening it.

As for the cost... I don't know. My wife bought them and I don't recall the price.

My bottom line is that these are good containers, particularly if you don't have younger kids that might need to open and seal the containers. They are a good size for taking a serving of soup to work for lunch, and they are excellent for storing sugar, flour and other products so that insects and mice can't get at them. 

I recommend this Ziploc 2 Cup store-and-serve container.