How To Keep Food Hot While Traveling? 10 Easy Tips

It is not something you would want to happen to you—eating cold or lukewarm food after hours of travel.

Taking your friends or family on a journey with you and then providing them with cold food at the destination can be quite disenchanting. So, how to keep food warm while traveling?

Thanks to electric and non-electric appliances, keeping your food warm while traveling has become simpler. To keep your food hot while traveling or when transporting food for catering, you can use equipment like aluminum foil, tea towels, glass containers, portable microwaves, thermal cookers, and warming trays, among others.

To ensure that your food stays hot, delectable, and safe to eat until you reach your destination, I’d like to share my simple travel-friendly tips for keeping food warm. Keep reading!

Related Reading: How To Keep Food Warm For A Party?

Why Keep Your Food Hot?

You’re probably wondering what the big deal is and why it’s necessary to keep your food warm.

It goes without saying that keeping your food hot is beneficial, especially while traveling, even if you don’t think it’s a problem when it gets cold. For example, maintaining food at a warm temperature has health benefits.

You have an easier time digesting warm food, which is advantageous because you’ll absorb more nutrients from it quickly than from cold food.

Above all, keeping your food warm will lessen the possibility of food contamination. Warm food also keeps for a longer period of time without going bad or smelling bad.

In contrast, food that is warm tastes different from food that is cold. For instance, if you enjoy a barbeque that has been prepared in warmer weather, the barbeque will not be sufficient in colder weather.

In order to reap the nutritional advantages of the food and appreciate its authentic flavor, we must keep it warm.

How To Keep Food Hot While Traveling?

How do you actually keep food hot while traveling now that we’ve gone over the crucial safety advice?

There are actually many different approaches you can take, depending on the kind of travel you’re doing and the amount of luggage you have room for.

You have a lot more options with a car than, say, when you backpack.

The ten methods listed below will help you keep food hot while traveling.

1. Aluminum Foil And Towels

Wrapping the food in towels and aluminum foil is the simplest and most popular way to keep it hot while traveling.

This will aid in keeping your food hot for a few hours or if you are traveling with a lot of dense food (such as a soup or casserole) it can stay hot even longer.

Your food should be heated to an extremely hot temperature and placed in an airtight container before you leave. The container should then be covered in several layers of aluminum foil.

Heat radiation is effectively reflected by aluminum. The heat from the food will thus be reflected back.

However, aluminum is not very effective at preventing heat transfer through conduction. Because of this, you should always wrap your food in towels or warm clothing.

You can happily eat a hot, healthy meal while traveling thanks to the two insulators’ combined ability to keep food hot for extended periods of time.

2. Use A Thermos

One of the very best methods for keeping food hot while traveling is a vacuum-insulated thermos.

They are constructed of double-walled stainless steel, sucking the air out of the space between the inner and outer walls to create a near vacuum.

The BEST insulator known to man, a vacuum will hold more heat than any other material. Over towels and aluminum foil, it is significantly more efficient.

Before placing the food in the thermos, reheat it as hot as possible. After sealing the thermos, act quickly to prevent steam or heat loss.

Wrap your thermos in aluminum foil, towels, or warm clothing for even better results, and keep it away from any other cold beverages or items you might be carrying with you.

Food can frequently be kept hot while traveling for up to 6–8 hours with a thermos.

There are many diverse brands available. If you decide to purchase one, I personally advise the Hydro Flask Food Flask or the Thermos Food Flask. Read out post on best hot food container for more information.

3. Wrap In Newspaper Or Cardboard

Newspaper or cardboard is a fantastic fallback option if you don’t have any towels, aluminum foil, or warm clothing that you can use to wrap your food in.

A few paper layers around your food can help it stay hot for longer because the paper is actually a really good insulator.

If you’re traveling, this is a fantastic option. You can either buy a newspaper or frequently find old copies lying around and use them to keep your food warm for no cost.

4. Use A Cooler

This is going to be one of the best ways to keep your food warm if you’re traveling in a car and are able to bring a cooler with you.

Food can be kept hot while traveling for up to 8+ hours with the right planning and a good cooler. As a result, you could prepare food in the morning and it would still be hot when dinnertime came.

The best ways to keep food hot in a cooler are covered in a full article I wrote, but the fundamentals are fairly straightforward.

• Pre-heat your cooler with warm water
• Heat up your food as hot as you can make it
• Wrap food in aluminum foil
• Add in some hot water bottles or hot bricks
• Wrap everything in towels
• Place in your cooler
• Keep the lid shut

5. Add A Reusable Heat Pack

Reusable heat packs can keep food extra warm while traveling.

They are portable and can be used whenever you need them.

They don’t add enough thermal mass to warm up cold food, but they will help keep it hotter for longer by adding thermal mass.

Place them near your food, and then cover it, the heat pack, and the foil with towels.

Both reusable instant heat packs and single-use heat packs that require shaking to activate are available. The fact that you can easily reset the reusable ones by submerging them in boiling water is why I personally prefer them.

6. Add A Hot Water Bottle

Food will stay hot for a longer period of time the more thermal mass you add to it. Adding a lot of heat and keeping your food hot for longer while traveling is easy with a hot water bottle.

Use a single-wall stainless steel bottle with boiling water or a plastic bottle filled with warm water to keep your food piping hot.

If you have a standard hot water bottle on hand, you can also use it.

To keep everything warm, place your hot water bottle close to your food and wrap everything in aluminum foil and a towel.

I can be seen in the image above adding boiling water to a Hydro Flask that has vacuum insulation. Since the Hydro Flask doesn’t emit much heat due to the vacuum insulation, it wouldn’t be effective at keeping food hot while traveling.

7. Wrap Your Food In Warm Clothing

You probably have warm clothing with you anyway if you’re traveling.

Warm clothing is made to be an excellent insulator, keeping your body warm as well as your food warm.

To keep your food hot while you’re traveling, wrap it in several layers of warm clothing.

8. Trap The Steam

As steam escapes from hot food, tiny water molecules absorb a lot of heat, causing your food to cool down more quickly.

But if you contain the steam and don’t let it out, your food will stay hotter for a longer period of time.

To keep the steam in your food, use an airtight container or wrap it in plastic or aluminum foil.

9. Thermal Bags

Food can be kept hot while you’re traveling with thermal bags, which are lightweight and inexpensive.

In a manner similar to how aluminum foil and a towel insulate food, they do the same.

The thermal bag’s foil helps keep heat inside, and typically there is a layer of plastic or cardboard that further insulates the food.

When you’re finished eating, the great thing about thermal bags is that they are incredibly light and fold up small, taking up very little space.

Wrapping food in a towel or warm clothing will help a thermal bag retain heat longer, keeping food hotter for longer.

10. Make Your Food Extra Hot

Remember that hot food will cool down over time when transporting it; therefore, prepare it hotter than you would normally want to consume it.

By making your food extra hot to start, it will gradually cool down to a pleasant, palatable temperature.

If you start with food that is just right for eating, it will cool down and become cold. Then, when you go to eat, your food will be lukewarm and revolting.

To ensure that your food will still be hot when you arrive at your destination, heat it up as much as you can without ruining it.

Read More:

• How to Keep Food Cold While Camping?
• How to Keep Fried Food Crispy?

Safety Suggestion: Keeping Food Above 140ºF (60ºC)

The temperature of your food is one of the most important considerations when attempting to keep it hot while traveling.

According to the USDA, food that is above 140°F (60°C) tends to remain safe indefinitely because bacteria find it extremely difficult to grow at such high temperatures.

However, when temperatures fall below 140°F (60°C), they enter what is referred to as “the danger zone.” Bacteria can grow in this temperature range, spoiling your food and possibly even putting you at risk of getting sick.

Therefore, while traveling, you should refrain from keeping food at a warm temperature. Keep it at or below 40°F (4°C), which is roughly the temperature of a cup of coffee made by a barista. Or, keep it at or above 140°F (60°C), which is the ideal temperature.

Since there is some room for error, it is difficult to complete this task perfectly while traveling. To make sure food hasn’t spoiled after it enters the danger zone, you should consume it within 1-2 hours.

Some foods, like those from the U.S. vegetables) while other foods are more likely to make you sick (eg. chicken, rice, leftovers).

If you plan to bring leftover dinner with you while traveling, you’ll also want to make sure that the night before you cool it down as quickly as you can. Don’t leave it in the danger zone the night before and again the following day.

You should be fine if you use caution when handling hot food.

Tips To Transport Hot Food For Catering

Catering hot food can be difficult to transport, especially if you don’t have the proper tools to keep the food hot.

You can use electrical or non-electrical methods to keep hot food hot or at the desired temperature when transporting it for catering.

Here is some advice for moving hot catering food that you might find helpful:

• Conveniently package the food. Separate the hot meals from the cold ones
• Make use of properly insulated trays to keep your food warm
• Use a pan carrier to transport hot food for catering
• Make use of a Pro Cart since it keeps food hot and well organized
• Use glass containers to store the food instead of plastic containers since glass helps keep the food hot compared to plastic
• When bringing hot food for catering, use chaffing dishes to help keep it warm.
• Wrap paper towels around every glass container containing food
• Use customizable vans to retain heat when transporting hot foods

Good Machine That Keeps Your Food Warm While Traveling

There are countless popular devices that keep food warm while traveling, but the following are a few that should not be overlooked:

1. The Electric Lunch Box Food Heater Forabest Upgraded 50w

This device is a Leakproof two-in-one portable food warmer lunch box suitable for use at home and in cars. Most people think this device is dependable and simple to use.

2. Car Food Warmer Made By Aotto Portable Oven Compatible With 12v And 24v

This device is well-known because it does a great job of keeping food warm while being transported. Investing in this device will not disappoint you.

3. Magic Mill Extra Large Electric Warming Tray

This warming tray has a hot plate and a temperature-control knob. Due to its portability, it can be used to warm food while traveling.

4. Electric Lunch Box Crock Pot: Portable Food Warmer On-the-go

Popularity is attributed to its ease of use, ability to keep food warm while in transit, portability, and suitability for the task. The buzz surrounding this device indicates that it is a well-known reliable device to use on the road.

5. Koolatron 12v Heating Lunch Box Stove

This device is great for traveling because it provides powerful food heating satisfaction, allowing you to heat your food quickly.

Precautions Before Using Electric Machine To Keep Food Hot

You should take precautions to prevent injuries and electrical accidents when working with electric appliances to keep your food hot. The following are some of the safety measures you should be aware of:

• Make sure you keep the electric device far from water or other liquids.
• When connecting an electric food warmer, make sure you are not using exposed electrical contacts.
• If an electric device starts to tingle or overheat, turn it off.
• When using electric machines, be sure to wear the appropriate attire.
• Make sure the equipment is unplugged from the power source after use.
• Don’t use too many electric machines and overload the power source.
• After use, turn off the equipment right away.
• Make sure you set the appropriate temperatures when warming food in an electric appliance.
• Unless you possess the necessary knowledge, avoid touching any exposed electrical contacts.

Frequently Asked Questions