February 2010

All the content on this site by month.

What are Japanese plastic bento boxes made of? Are they BPA-free?

[I've substantially updated this article recently to answer some emailed questions about bento accessories and so on, so here it is again for your reading pleasure. Originally posted in August 2008.]

I recently got an email from a Just Bento reader concerning the plastic used to make bento boxes. She was concerned, since she couldn't read the Japanese writing on the packaging. I'm sure a lot of other readers have similar concerns, especially given recent scares reported in the media about plastic containers leaching chemicals into food and beverages. Keeping in mind that I am not a scientist or expert, just a concerned consumer just like you, here's what I've been able to find out by doing some research on various Japanese as well as English-language web sites.

Bento tidbits from Japan: Kiyoken Hotate Gohan (scallop rice) Bento, a higher end takeout bento

Kiyoken hotate (scallop) bento

I'm busy getting ready for the photo shoot for the bento cookbook, which starts next week, so I don't have a lot of time for long posts at the moment. So I thought I'd do a brief write up of this bento I had for lunch today. It's a good example of a higher-end takeout bento, of the kind you might buy in the food hall of a department store, at specialized stores or stalls in the bigger train stations, and so on.