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Food containers formed of sheet plastic are latchably stackable on one another. Each container has base (14) and lid (16) elements, with one of them having an outer rim part with a pair of long handle sections (80, 82) that can be pivoted up to form a handle assembly for carrying the container. The

Food containers formed of sheet plastic are latchably stackable on one another. Each container has base (14) and lid (16) elements, with one of them having an outer rim part with a pair of long handle sections (80, 82) that can be pivoted up to form a handle assembly for carrying the container. The sections that form handles are formed in the lid element (16) rather than in the base element (14), so a person does not have to contend with long bouncing sections if the person eats a meal out of the base. One of the elements has vertically undercut grooves (50) and the other element has horizontal projections (52) that slide into and along the grooves. The grooved element has vertical passages (120) along which the projections can move vertically until they can slide into and along the grooves.

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What is claimed is: 1. A plastic food container that has a vertical axis and that includes a base element (14) with a base cavity for holding food and a base rim portion (26) that surrounds a top of said base cavity, and a cover element (16) with a middle part that lies over a middle of said cavity

What is claimed is: 1. A plastic food container that has a vertical axis and that includes a base element (14) with a base cavity for holding food and a base rim portion (26) that surrounds a top of said base cavity, and a cover element (16) with a middle part that lies over a middle of said cavity and a cover rim portion (34) with said cover element being closeable on said base, wherein the rim portion of a first of said elements has radially inner and outer rim parts (60, 62, FIG. 7) and radially opposite sides forming a pair of connectors (64) that each connects to said radially inner rim parts, said connector having opposite ends that each forms a pivot joint (90, 92), and said radially outer rim part forming a pair of handle sections (80, 82) that each extends horizontally between a pair of said pivot joints that lie at radially opposite sides of said first element rim portion when said handle sections are not in use, said handle sections being pivotal to extend upward when said handle sections are used to carry said first element, wherein: said pivot joints of said connectors are formed by loops (100, FIG. 11A) of said plastic that each has a length of at least 1.5 millimeters, with one end of the loop integral with the rest of the connector and with the rest of the loop being separated along one of said separation lines from an adjacent one of said radially inner rim parts, to allow the loop to bend as the handle section is pivoted, and as seen in an end view of each loop the loop has a pair of downward-extending loop ends and a horizontal loop middle when said handle sections extend horizontally and are not in use to hold said first element. 2. A plurality of identical stackable food containers with vertical axes wherein each container includes a base with a cavity for holding food and a base stacking wall at the bottom of the cavity, and each container includes a cover with a top cover stacking wall, wherein: each base stacking wall has means for detachably latching to a cover stacking wall, which includes a plurality of vertically undercut grooves in one stacking wall and a plurality of horizontally-projecting projections formed in the other stacking wall that are moveable into and out of said grooves; said one stacking wall has a plurality of vertical passages with a passage lower end that leads to one of said grooves, each of said projections of said other stacking wall is moveable vertically along one of said vertical passages and then horizontally along the groove; each of said grooves has an upper wall that is beveled to allow one of said projections to be forced downward along the beveled wall into the groove without turning one of said stacking walls. 3. A plastic first food container that has a vertical axis, that has base and lid elements, and that can be stacked on an identical second container by a stackable bottom wall of the base element of said first container connecting to a stackable top wall of the lid element of said second container wherein: the stackable wall of a first of said elements is slidable in linear directions with respect to the stackable wall of a second of said elements, the stackable wall of one of said elements forms a plurality of vertically undercut grooves extending in said linear directions and the stackable wall of the other element forms a plurality of projections that are slidable into and along said grooves; said containers are of parallelopiped shape with four corners and one of said elements has four vertically-projecting pads at its four corners that form said grooves. 4. A plurality of identical stackable food containers with vertical axes wherein each container includes a base element with a cavity for holding food and a base element stacking wall at the bottom of the cavity, and each container includes a cover element with a top cover element stacking wall, wherein: the stacking wall of a first of said elements has a plurality of vertically undercut grooves and the stacking wall of a second of said elements has a plurality of horizontally-projecting projections that are moveable into and out of said grooves, to allow stacking of a pair of containers by moving one of the pair of containers so projections of one container of the pair enter the grooves of the other container of the pair; each of said grooves has an upper wall that is beveled to allow one of said projections to be forced downward along the beveled wall into the groove without moving one of said stacking walls; the stacking wall of said first element has a plurality of vertical passages with a passage lower end that leads to one of said grooves, each of said projections of said stacking wall of said second element is moveable vertically along one of said vertical passages and then horizontally along the groove. 5. A plastic food container formed of thin sheet plastic, that has a vertical axis and that includes a base element (14) with a base cavity for holding food and with the base suitable for eating food directly out of the base cavity and a base rim portion (26) that surrounds a top of said base cavity, and a cover element (16) with a middle part that lies over a middle of said cavity and a cover rim portion (34) that is securely latchable to said base rim portion to hold said container closed, wherein: the rim portion of a first of said elements has a radially inner rim part (60, FIG. 7), a radially outer rim part (62), and radially opposite sides forming a pair of connectors (64) that each connects said radially inner and outer rim parts, said connectors each having circumferentially opposite ends that form pivot joints (90, 92), and said radially outer rim part forming a pair of elongated handle sections (80, 82) that each extends from a pivot joint of one of said connectors to a pivot joint of the other connector with said handle sections and inner rim part forming separation lines (72) along which each handle section is separable from an adjacent portion of said radially inner part, so each handle section can be lifted while pivoting on a pair of said pivot joints, to thereby form a handle assembly from which the container can be hand carried; said first element is said cover element, so said base element does not have elongated sections dangling from it that can wave after said handle sections are separated along said separation lines; said pivot joints at the ends of said connectors, are formed by downwardly extending loops of said plastic that each has a length of at least 1.5 millimeters and when said handle sections are horizontal each pivot joint has downwardly-extending opposite ends and a horizontally extending middle, with one end of the loop integral with the rest of the connector and with the rest of the loop being separated along one of said separation lines from an adjacent one of said radially inner rim parts. 6. A plastic food container formed of thin sheet plastic, that has a vertical axis and that includes a base element (14) and a cover element (16), wherein a first of said elements has a rim portion (34) with a radially inner rim part (60, FIG. 7), a radially outer rim part (62), and radially opposite sides forming a pair of connectors (64) that each connects said radially inner and outer rim parts, said connectors each having circumferentially opposite ends that form pivot joints (90, 92), and said radially outer rim part forming a pair of elongated handle sections (80, 82) that each extends from a pivot joint of one of said connectors to a pivot joint of the other connector with said handle sections and inner rim part forming separation lines (72) along which each handle section is separable from an adjacent portion of said radially inner part, so each handle section can be lifted while pivoting on a pair of said pivot joints, to thereby form a handle assembly from which the container can be hand carried, and wherein: said pivot joints at the ends of said connectors (64), are each formed by a joint length (100, FIG. 11A) of said sheet plastic that has a length of at least 1.5 millimeters and that is integral with the rest of the connector and with a corresponding handle section, with each of said joint lengths of sheet plastic having a bend (102, FIG. 11A) at one of its ends that merges with one of said handle sections. 7. The container described in claim 6 wherein: said handle sections (80, 82, FIG. 9) extend upward and are latched together; at each of said joint lengths (100) of at least 1.5 millimeters length, each of said joint lengths is bent into a loop.