The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Disposable Bento Box Wholesale

Whether it’s to reduce plastic waste, save money or eat healthier, more and more people are starting to embrace the bento lifestyle. But that first step of choosing the right bento box can be a daunting one. When it comes to bento boxes, it's definitely NOT one-size-fits-all.

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You don’t want to spend your hard-earned cash on a bento only to find that your stomach is growling by 2pm because your box only fits half a sandwich, or that your kid’s new lunchbox is too big for their school bag. With that in mind, we’ve compiled our best tips so you can pick the perfect bento box for you and your kids!

What Size Bento do you REALLY need?

First, let’s consider the size of the bento box.

Choosing a Japanese style bento box can be confusing especially as they tend to be smaller than Western-style lunch boxes. It's easy to underestimate how much food will actually fit into the box! The key with Japanese-stye bento boxes is that food is meant to be packed fairly densely (to prevent foods from moving around) and to make it look visually appealing. Depending on your packing technique and the foods used, you can surprisingly fit quite a lot of food into a petite-looking container.

Here at Bento&co we’ve divided our boxes into Small, Medium, and Large categories.

Small, Medium, and Large Bento Boxes

Small boxes (up to 500 ml)

Small bento boxes are perfect those with smaller appetites. They make great lunch boxes for kindergarten or elementary school, or if you're working on portion control. These boxes can also be used as a convenient container for side dishes, snacks or dessert!


The adorable Jiji Round Two Tier Lunch Bowl (500mL) has two tiers, and a built in fork. Perfect for little ones.

Medium boxes (500 to 780 mL)

Medium boxes are great for older kids, and adults looking to pack a medium-sized lunch. If you are unsure what bento box to choose, medium sized boxes are a great place to start.

The 700mL capacity Zen 07 Stainless Steel Bento is both spacious and durable.

Large boxes (780 mL - mL )

Large boxes are great for adults and growing teenagers who need a hearty lunch! This is also a good choice if you want to pack a fluffy salad or bulky sandwiches that you don't want to smush inside a small box.

The Asanoha Bento Box 950 mL can fit a ton of food, and the lower tier can be compacted into the top once you're done eating for easy transport.

Need even more room for your lunch?

XLarge boxes (mL+ )

These bento boxes are the go-to choice for when you want a VERY generous lunch, or want to share. It's also the category almost all jyuubako picnic bento boxes fall into.

For example, our lovely Signature Bento Box that comes with 9 removable compartments, filled with a gourmet feast by our friend Chef Yamada.

If you are still unsure what size is best for you, refer to the general guide below which shows suggested bento capacity (400mL to 900mL) based on age bracket and appetite. Note that these are general guidelines, and you may want a smaller or larger bento box depending on your lunch habits and lifestyle. 

Age

Large Appetite

Small Appetite

3-5 years

400ml

400ml

6-8 years

500ml

500ml

9-11 years

600ml

600ml

12-20 years

900ml

700ml

20-40 years

900ml

600ml

50-60 years

800ml

For more information, please visit Disposable Bento Box Wholesale.

600ml

600ml

500ml

Which Shape is Best? 

Bento boxes come in all kinds of shapes and each one comes with its own unique benefits and disadvantages. Here we’ve broken it down shape by shape so you can figure out which one will serve you best.

Oval and round boxes: Easy to wash! Can be difficult to fill up without creating gaps.  Perfect for “nokke” or “donburi” style bentos where you put your main dishes on top of rice.

Square boxes: Easy to place foods inside without gaps. Corners may be tricky to wash. Great for making checkerboard-style bentos alternating cubes of rice and toppings.

 
Slim/Narrow style boxes: Easy to put food in without gaps. Fits nicely into backpacks and work bags without taking up much space. Corners may be tricky to wash. May need to cut up larger pieces of food to be able to fit.

How many tiers should I choose?

Related to the shape of bento is the question of tiers. Most boxes come in one or two tiers (with some picnic boxes coming in 3 or more tiers).

1 Tier boxes: Less components means easier cleanup! There's also less room to divide rice and other foods, so sometimes they can be hard to keep separated without dividers or cups. Usually more room for foods to move around during transport.

2 Tier boxes: Easily separate rice from your side dishes. Packs a lot of food.  More parts to wash. Not ideal for “nokke” or “donburi” style bento.

Our Recommendation for Kids and Bento Beginners

For kids and bento beginners, we recommend one of our medium rounded bento boxes, as they're easy to pack, look great and are easy to clean! There's also many colors and options to pick from such as our Gel-cool Ice Pack Bento, Studio Ghibli Bento, and our smaller Bento&co Originals.

What Material is Best for Bento Boxes?

Next is the question of material, specifically whether to choose plastic, metal, or wood. Each has its benefits and advantages!

BPA-Free Plastic Bento Boxes

Bento boxes made from BPA-free plastic are perfect for everyday use. Most are dishwasher and microwave-safe. Comes in all kinds of fun designs and colors and at a reasonable price point.

Wooden Bento Boxes

Nothing beats the warm look and feel of a wooden bento box. These boxes are handmade, with many of them carefully crafted by Japanese artisans, like our Magewappa (“bent wood” bento boxes made with sustainably sourced cedar from Akita preferecture) and Miyama boxes, made by a single artisan, Mr. Hasehira. There is a price to pay for the beauty of wooden boxes however in that they are not microwave or dishwasher safe, require more care and tend to be more expensive.

A Miyama masterpiece

Stainless Steel Boxes

An increasingly popular choice, Stainless Steel boxes are lightweight, don’t transfer smells and flavors, and have a classic aesthetic. They are easy to clean and durable. Of course they can’t be microwaved, so they are better suited for foods meant to be eaten at room temperature although the Seagull Tiffin can be placed over an open flame!

The stylish Seagull Tiffin Stainless Steel Lunch Box | Medium can be placed directly over flame. Perfect for camping.

Factor in Other Preferences You Have for a Bento Box

Lastly, decide on any specific features you would like. Want a bento box with inner dividers built in to organize your food? The perfect box for you exists. Are you concerned about forgetting an icepack for your bento in the hotter months? Check out our Gel Cool collection.

Most importantly you need to like how your bento box looks! As your trusty companion to fuel you during the school or work week, your bento should make you excited to make (and more importantly eat) lunch. Choose the one that sparks joy for you! 

As you may know, I was kind of away from this site for a while. Although I was still writing about food here and there, and about various topics related to Japan and Japanese culture, I have been rather absent from the world of bentos. Well OK, I did write another bento cookbook! But still.

In my absence, the concept of the bento box has become a lot more popular. It is no longer difficult to find a suitable box and other equipment, as it used to be when I started this site back in . People are packing all kinds of bento boxes, or lunchboxes if you prefer, as the myriad of results for searching for "bento box" on Google or Pinterest and more show. People who have little interest in Japanese food, or anything Japanese, are showing interest in bento lunches. This is a great thing; when I started this site, it was to to spread the concept of the bento lunch, not just Japanese recipes for bentos. Just looking through the recipes on this site (which are all 100% bento-friendly) will reveal that there are plenty of not so Japanese recipes as well as Japanese ones, and both Just Bento Cookbooks have lots of recipes of both types.

In case it's not clear, the tl;dr version is: A bento lunch is simply a portable meal in a portable container. A homemade bento lunch is usually packed in a re-usable container, and ideally contains food that 1) tastes great (and safe!) several hours after it's made, 2) meets your or your family's dietary needs, and 3) looks really appetizing.

While the general concept of the bento lunch has indeed spread far and wide, I still feel that a lot of people are not quite getting it. A case in point is a recent video review posted by the venerable American institution, Cook's Illustrated. With all due respect, I think they are rather missing the point.

There is no such thing as the one perfect bento box that suits everyone.

The problem with product reviews of any kind that choose the "best" of something is that they do not take into account that everyone has different priorities and needs. The above video review is no different. The one they chose, a large MonBento model, is perfectly nice. MonBento makes great bento boxes (here's my review of one), but is the one they selected for everyone? Absolutely not. For one thing it's huge, with a a whopping ml capacity. It is actually marketed as a picnic box for 2 or more people. It's going to take up a ton of space in a backpack, and how would you pack that thing in a briefcase or a business-type tote bag? And how would a small child with a small backpack carry that back and forth to school?

Before going out to buy a bento box, think over your reasons and priorities wanting to get into bento lunches, as well as what you want to eat in them.

That's a long headline, but it really does cover the things everyone should think over before rushing out to buy a bento box. For instance:

• Do you want to really get into Japanese style bentos? Then of course, a 'traditional' Japanese bento box will work perfectly.
• Are you interested in creating charaben/kyaraben, i.e. decorative bentos with cute faces and such? Again, a small Japanese style bento box works great.
• Are you going to be mainly packing 'fluffy' food like salads and sandwiches? A Japanese style bento, whether the food in it is actually Japanese or not, is packed very tightly with very little room for the food to move around. This means you can pack a lot of food in a small container. But if you'd rather pack food that needs a lot of space and can't be compacted, such as a salad or a large sandwich, then you will need a container large enough to hold the food plus the air it needs around it. It's possible also that you, or your child, is the type that needs to have each food separate and not touching each other, in which case you'll also need a box with lots of space or even multiple compartments. (If you are just going to be packing the standard sliced bread type sandwich, you could just get a sandwich box.)
• Do you want to warm up your food before you eat it in a microwave? Then you need a microwave-safe box of course. Alternatively you could consider a thermal lunch jar, which keeps your food hot or cold for several hours.
• Do you want to reduce or even eliminate your use of plastics? You may want to choose a non-plastic box made of metal or wood, although you need to be aware of the drawbacks of these materials.
• Last but not really least, do you really just want to collect those pretty boxes? I understand - I was like that for a while. Like collecting dinnerware or something, that's a whole other topic really. For practical purposes you do not need a huge number of boxes.

It seems to me that the only kind of lunch that the Cook's Illustrated testers were considering for their reviews were the 'fluffy with lots of air' type, which is why they went for the big box. But if that's not the type of lunch you want to pack, all that space and bulk taken up by a big box is just unnecessary.

Most people need at least 2 different types of bento boxes, plus a couple of side boxes.

Unless you only eat one type of bento lunch, chances are you will need at least 2 different types of main containers for your bentos:

One compact Japanese style box, for densely packed meals. As I've stated many times on these pages, Japanese bentos are really packed pretty tightly and hold a lot of food.

The photos here are from the Just Bento Cookbook 2; they show a pretty hearty meal arranged on a flat plate, and the same meal packed into a single-layer type Japanese bento box and a two-tier type box. The single layer box has a capacity of around 850ml, and the two tier one a total of around 750 ml. The plate is a standard dinner plate, about 11 inches (28cm) in diameter.

One larger box, for salads or sandwiches and other meals that need a lot of air around them. Both of these boxes have a capacity of about 900 to ml; the one on the right is a 2-tier box, which each tier holding about 500 ml. Still a lot smaller than the large MonBento box though! Personally I don't really like big boxes because of the bulk, so I prefer to pack salads in multiple boxes - one large one for the fluffy greens, and a leakproof side box or two for say, a bean mix marinated in dressing and/or shredded cheese and ham.

In addition to the two basic box types, you may always want to have:

Some small side boxes for fruit, dessert and so on that you want to keep separate from the rest of the food, or to use for the salad packing method described above.

That should cover the needs of most people. If you want to add a third type of box a thermal type might be useful, especially for hot soup lunches, which are great in the winter. Here's another bento from the Just Bento Cookbook 2, with a hot soup in the thermal container and sides in a tiny yet cute children's bento box that I use as a side box.

Non-plastic bento boxes

Most bento boxes are made of some kind of plastic, but some are made of other materials. My comparison chart of different types of materials used for bento boxes should come in handy. If eliminating or reducing plastics is a high priority for you, consider how much you want to eliminate. If you want 100% plastic-free boxes, they are going to leak if you put liquid things in them.

If you want to keep your bento containers totally plastic-free, the solution is to not put liquid things in them, and carry them the right way up. It's a bit of hassle to be sure, and you need to consider if you can deal with that. If you can allow yourself a reduced amount of plastic, a box with a plastic or silicone sealing gasket around the lid, a couple of inner silicone or plastic containers with lids or sealing side boxes for liquid elements like dressing may be an acceptable compromise.

Want more information on Cornstarch Bowls? Feel free to contact us.

Further reading

• I listed the Top 10 rules for bentos for me. It's a good exercise to try to make your top 10, or 5, or even 3 rules for what you want your bentos to be too. That will give you a clearer idea of what kind of box, not to mention accessories, you want to get.
• My bento box size guide: Which size is right for you?
• Some in-depth reviews of various bento boxes.
• My original guide to selecting the right bento box, which talks about inexpensive alternatives.
• Linked above too, but my comparison chart of different types of materials used for bento boxes should help, especially if you are considering alternatives to plastics.
• My detailed review of a LunchBots box.