Storing food the high-tech way

The claim

To protect food, Heritage Lock&Lock Airtight uses latches and a “space-age silicon seal”; Rubbermaid Stain Shield uses an “exclusive dual material storage lid”; Sharper Image Fresher Longer uses polypropylene that’s impervious to air and odor. We paid $23 for Lock&Lock (17 pieces), $69 for Stain Shield (20 pieces), and $70 for Fresher Longer (12 pieces).

The check

We filled two sets of each type of container with soppresatta salami, fresh mozzarella, grapes, and strawberries—separately, of course. Then we popped one set in a refrigerator and, for a tougher test, left the other at room temperature.

To check stain resistance, we filled containers with red pasta sauce, left them overnight, microwaved them, washed them, and took a close look.

CR’s take

Use Lock&Lock or Fresher Longer and you’ll get less mold than in Stain Shield. With Lock&Lock, you’ll also pay one-third the price. At room temperature, soppresatta, mozzarella, and grapes in Stain Shield were moldy after five days; in Lock&Lock and Fresher Longer, those foods had little or no mold. By day nine, all foods in Stain Shield looked much worse than those in Lock&Lock and Fresher Longer.

On the other hand, Stain Shield revealed no remnants of nuked-on pasta sauce; Lock&Lock and Fresher Longer did. All were dishwasher safe.