The Dip-In Tiffin by Srishti Garg is a clever solution that takes cues from traditional practices to make single-use takeaway food packaging eco-friendly, modular, eye-catching, and culturally relevant! Its stackable design is directly inspired by the vertically stackable steel boxes found in Indian tiffins (the Indian equivalent of a bento-box), and it uses easily available natural materials to store food, making it safer to dispose than plastic.
The Dip-In Tiffin was designed primarily for dry/semi-dry foods. Since the packaging isn’t air-tight, it tends to exclude foods that are gravy-based, limiting its options, but making it great for dry snacks like doughnuts, sandwiches, etc (the Indian context uses savory doughnuts and fermented rice-cakes). The tiffin’s main vessel is created using a dried, thermoformed Areca leaf, an eco-friendly alternative to conventional disposable plates. These vessels hold semi-dry, saucy, and oily foods really well too, offering a more reliable alternative to brown paper bags/boxes. The Areca bowls are covered with a simple branded paper sleeve, and slots along the sleeve allow multiple boxes to be suspended to each other vertically, resembling the tiffin. The solution was devised mainly for airports, which see patrons quickly grabbing meals and eating them within hours of checking in. It doesn’t use any glue, staples, or seals either, making it safe, and the all-natural makeup of the packaging means it can easily be disposed of after use!
Designer: Srishti Garg
