Built-in cutting boards are a gimmick.

Yes, you can find lunch boxes with a built-in cutting board or a strainer, but they’re gimmicky as hell — and usually worse than just buying separate pieces.

The cutting board version is almost always a cheap plastic tray with a flimsy bamboo lid. It feels cool until you realize you’re dragging a knife across the thing that sits on top of your food. And the strainer option is typically just a perforated tray that traps moisture and gets gross if you don’t scrub it immediately.

As for a mixing container for dressing? No mainstream lunch box does that well. You get a little sauce pot and pour it over when you’re ready to eat. That’s honestly the right way to do it — dressing should go on right before eating, not sit around in a mixing container getting everything soggy.

Buy a normal bento box, a collapsible cutting board, and a leakproof sauce jar. That combo beats any “12-in-1” lunch gadget on Amazon.