The Best Containers for Storing Dry Food

Storing Dry Food: The Progressive – Prepworks ProKeeper is the finest dry food storage container for keeping pantry products fresh and pest-free after we analyzed seven top-rated container systems. The functionally distinct Progressive containers include unique built-in characteristics made especially for storing dry items including flour, brown sugar, coffee, and other dry commodities. The Rubbermaid – Brilliance four-container set, which is similarly airtight and provides simple access for scooping and measuring baking necessities, is another highlight.

How we choose the test containers

Functional and airtight dry food storage containers are crucial whether you want to organize your pantry or kitchen cabinets or keep pests from digging into your flour, sugar, and other baking ingredients.

Tupperware was the most well-known brand of food storage containers in the 1950s and 1960s, and it’s still used as a catch-all phrase for all plastic containers today. Although Tupperware has a global reach, the majority of its sales are to private customers, in contrast to its less costly competitor, Rubbermaid, which is widely available.

In our prior reviews of food storage containers designed for cooling, freezing, and reheating food, Rubbermaid – Brilliance emerged as the clear winner among plastic containers.

Brilliance’s range of storage containers and another highly regarded Rubbermaid product was added to our list for this assessment of dry goods storage containers to see how they compared to other highly rated containers. We chose containers with at least a 4.3-star rating since they are the ones that Amazon reviewers tend to gush over.

Since not everyone prefers to use plastic, we chose to test glass and acrylic containers to see if they were superior to plastic for storing dry products. Although many dry food storage containers may be bought independently, it is more cost-effective to buy them as a set because most are supplied in sets of three or more different sizes.

Compare the top containers for storing dry food.

How did we test?

Storing Dry Food: Every container we examined was praised for being airtight, which is crucial for keeping grains like flour, sugar, and rice because they are prone to infestation by pantry moths, also known as Indian meal moths.

We placed a piece of toilet paper inside each container, secured the lid, and submerged it in two liters of water to see if the container was airtight. We rotated the container while holding it submerged. If the tissue paper was wet when we took the container out of the water and opened the lid, the container wasn’t airtight. We evaluated seven storage containers, and just three of them were completely airtight.

Generally speaking, cylinders or tall rectangles are used to store dry goods. 

Some of these slim modulars, which could fit in the majority of kitchen cabinets, were no higher than 10 inches. 

These containers were too small to fit a five-pound bag of flour or allow for scooping flour out with a one-cup measuring cup, even though they would look lovely on a countertop.

While some individuals might simply need containers for beans, grains, and pasta, we tended to like ones that held baking materials and had a design that made accessing them simple.

Generally speaking, cylinders or tall rectangles are used to store dry goods. Some of these slim modulars, which could fit in the majority of kitchen cabinets, were no higher than 10 inches. These containers were too small to fit a five-pound bag of flour or allow for scooping flour out with a one-cup measuring cup, even though they would look lovely on a countertop.

While some individuals might simply need containers for beans, grains, and pasta, we tended to like ones that held baking materials and had a design that made accessing them simple.

Prepworks by Progressive is the best overall.

In addition to being airtight, the Progressive – Prepworks ProKeeper containers are unlike any other containers we’ve seen or tried. Despite the fact that the ProKeepers might be used to store any food item, each of the six containers in the set is intended to hold a particular dry-goods item.

For instance, the 15-cup flour container features a built-in leveler that can be used to level flour from a measuring cup that easily fits within the container and can carry a whole five-pound bag of flour. A terra-cotta disc in the brown sugar ProKeeper keeps brown sugar from hardening when wet. The two tiny containers each feature a shaker for herbs, spices, or cupcake toppings, and the ProKeeper for powdered sugar comes with a sifting spoon.

Other coffees, cereal, grain, and pasta containers are available separately from Progressive and each has a unique function, such as a coffee scoop or a wide-mouth pour spout for the cereal container. The clever herb ProKeeper lets excess water fall into the bottom of the container, where it can be emptied through an integrated drain hole, while washed herbs flow into a basket at the top.

Each container is composed of BPA-free crystal clear plastic, and the lids are sealed with a removable silicone gasket to allow for easy cleaning.

Except for the white sugar container, which had a minor design problem that we found bothersome, all of the containers were completely airtight. The white sugar ProKeeper has a pour spout, and while the silicone gasket on the lids of all other ProKeepers is 14 inches thick, it is thinner on the sugar container and does not sufficiently seal the spout cover.

It’s unfortunate that the innovative pour spout didn’t do a better job of keeping the contents airtight since the white sugar container is big enough to hold four pounds of sugar. However, the container for white sugar might be replaced with another airtight ProKeeper and utilized to store beans, pasta, or other dry goods that aren’t prone to pantry pests in place of the sugar container.

The six-piece set costs a little bit more than comparable sets, but the excellent design elements and extras, such as the terra cotta disc, make up for the difference in price.

Key conclusions:

• The most distinctive and well-made container system we evaluated is the six-piece Progressive – Prepworks ProKeeper set.
• Each one has characteristics for a certain item, such as cake toppers, brown sugar, or wheat.
• The ProKeepers tested perfectly airtight, with the exception of the sugar container’s pour spout, which failed to shut.
• There are additional containers for coffee, grains, herbs, and pasta that may be purchased separately.

Rubbermaid – Brilliance came in second.

The Progressive – Prepworks containers’ intelligent design helped them win out above our runner-up, the Rubbermaid – Brilliance four-container set. Because of its longevity, simplicity of opening/closing, and 100% airtight seal provided by a thick, integrated silicone gasket, Rubbermaid – Brilliance was awarded best plastic food storage container in our assessment of food storage containers for refrigerating, freezing, and reheating food.

The Brilliance all-purpose containers and the Brilliance dry food storage containers that we examined for this evaluation are identical in size and form. However, the dry food set is more suited for pantry storage since it uses vertical space by using higher containers.

The eight-piece set, in which each lid counts as a separate piece, consists of a 9.25-inch-tall, 16-cup container that can hold a five-pound bag of flour, a 12-cup container for sugar, a 9.25-inch-tall, narrow 6.6-cup container that can only hold cooked pasta and a squat, rectangular 3.2-cup container.

The Rubbermaid – Brilliance was knocked down in our ranking by the little 3.2-cup container because it’s just a basic food-storage container and is too small for everyday cupboard goods. But there are extra sizes, like a spaghetti-sized container, that may be bought alone or in pairs.

Although the eight-piece set is reasonably priced, you’ll probably need to buy additional if you intend to keep more than three dry food items in your kitchen or pantry. Nevertheless, of the three containers we examined, the Rubbermaid – Brilliance containers are the only ones you can trust totally to keep pantry products fresh and pest-free.

Key conclusions:

• The Tritan plastic used to make the Rubbermaid – Brilliance containers is strong, transparent, simple to open and close, and completely airtight.
• Store dry pantry items like flour, sugar, and rice in the three bigger containers.
• The set’s smaller container is too tiny for pantry items, but it’s still great for storing food in the refrigerator.
• The Rubbermaid – Brilliance set is reasonably priced, but if you want to store more pantry items, you’ll definitely need to purchase more pieces separately.

additional containers we examined

Set of Bellemain Acrylic Canisters

The sole another set we examined that proved airtight was the Bellemain – Acrylic Canister Set. Since they are quite lightweight and have thin, shaky chrome locks, we must admit that we were shocked. The containers, which resemble glass Mason jars, would look lovely on a kitchen counter. Although the lids and locks are apparently indestructible, they could not hold up if they are accidentally knocked to the ground.

The Bellemain will keep flour and sugar fresh since they are airtight, but they are just big enough to scoop out a half-cup. These glass containers would be a good substitute for plastic containers if you want to keep dried food products like beans, lentils, and short pasta.

OP Containers by OXO Good Grips

Two tall, narrow canisters, two little narrow canisters, and a square are all part of the OXO Good Grips – POP Container set. None are wide enough to scoop with a measuring cup or big enough to hold flour and sugar.

The POP lids are a fantastic concept. They do so by pressing down on a sizable button located in the middle of the lid, which lowers the silicone seal into the container’s lip and then releases it. Unfortunately, water leaked into the canister during our test since the seal isn’t airtight. Bugs can enter a space if water can. Although they appear excellent, the POP container set was the most costly set we evaluated.

Glass Storage Containers from Brabantia

Glass containers are hard to come by, yet Brabantia has excellent reviews on Amazon. They aren’t constructed of sturdy glass, like a Mason jar, but they weigh about the same as a regular wine glass. They have replaceable, lovely colored lids in muted Martha Stewart-esque tones. We may see using them to store cotton puffs or Q-tips because they are not airtight and are too tiny to handle more than a pound of flour or sugar.

Set of food storage containers from Chef’s Path

Four different heights of containers are included in the Chef’s Path seven-piece set, one of which is made expressly for spaghetti. To store flour or sugar, though, they are all barely four inches wide, making them worthless unless you wish to scoop it out with a tablespoon. Since the design is modular, all of the containers may fit the lids. A vertical latch that can be closed on either side of the Chef’s Path lids provides security. Water leaking into the container during our tests because the extremely thin silicone band was insufficient to close it. Despite having a clean, contemporary style, the Chef’s Path containers are not airtight.

The Modular Containers by Rubbermaid

1776464 The Rubbermaid Modular Containers are simple storage solutions for a pantry or kitchen cabinet; they won’t look very attractive on your counter. The bright-red Modular lids are interchangeable, and the rectangular containers are broad and deep enough to scoop out flour and sugar. The Rubbermaid Modulars are frequently criticized for having lids that don’t fit properly and are challenging to snap on. It does require some work, and presumptively the seal was intact. However, the Rubbermaid Modulars failed to be airtight, much like the majority of the containers we evaluated.

The Conclusion

Only two of the seven items we evaluated were practical and airtight, despite the fact that dry food storage containers must be both.

Each of the Progressive – Prepworks ProKeepers was created with a specific element in mind. The brown sugar container contains a terra cotta disc that keeps the brown sugar from drying out, while the flour container is broad enough for scooping and has a built-in leveler.