29 Aug 2013 Making lunch boxes and travel mugs from canning jars

There is more than one application for the good, old-fashioned canning jar – see what US packaging manufacturer, Cuppow, has come up with…

Cuppow is an idealistic American company set up to develop everyday products that would help consumers decrease their eco-footprint. Its first range adapts Ball canning jars that have been made in the US since the turn of the 20th century.

“Making a product in America for that long is one thing, making one that stands up to decades of use and is meant to last a lifetime (or longer) is a very sustainable and special thing indeed. It’s something we’re proud to support, enable, and a mindset that is just as important and valuable in the 21st century,” it proclaims.

The flagship product is a drinking lid adaptor for canning jars (left) – allowing people to up-cycle an everyday item into an eco-friendly travel mug.

It’s newest innovation, named the ‘Bnto’ (above), is an insert for canning jars that allows consumers to keep wet and dry ingredients separate so the jars can be used as a lunch or tuck ‘box’.

Cuppow says canning jars are “ideal” to use as lunch boxes because they are designed to store food safely, and they are “easy to clean, cheap and microwavable”.

It took inspiration, it says, from Japanese bento boxes to create the new Bnto (pronounced ‘ben-toh’) insert that separates the jar into two compartments, keeping the wet from the dry stuff.

The inserts can be used to store salad and dressing, yoghurt and granola, chips and dips, soup and crackers, milk and cookies, or any other wet and dry ingredients.

Cuppow says that its inserts are designed for continued use and made from plastic “sourced from recycled stock of food-grade plastic”.

Cuppow: www.cuppow.com