Getting started

From press to bottle

Updated October 2026

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One: choose treated or untreated Two: if treated, establish the process Three: if untreated, lay out the warning Four: set the shelf life honestly Five: decide the fill Six: choose the container against the fill Seven: then the closure and the tamper evidence Why treatment comes first And write the plan down as you go References

The treatment decides the fill temperature, and the fill temperature decides the bottle.

One: choose treated or untreated

The two routes. Everything downstream follows, including how far the product can travel and what the label says.

Two: if treated, establish the process

Control measures producing at minimum a 5 log reduction, documented, and effective for at least as long as the shelf life under normal and moderate abuse conditions. That last phrase is doing real work.

Three: if untreated, lay out the warning

Word for word, in a place it will be read. It is not optional and it is not paraphrasable, and designing a label around it afterwards is harder than designing around it from the start.

Four: set the shelf life honestly

The 5-log reduction has to hold for the whole of it. A longer stated shelf life is a longer period your process has to be shown to cover, which is an argument against optimism.

Five: decide the fill

Hot fill, cold fill with a preservative system, or cold fill with a short refrigerated life. The three give very different container requirements and very different businesses.

Six: choose the container against the fill

A hot fill needs a container rated for it. PET is the catalog's largest material and it has the lowest service temperature, which is the single most common mismatch in this craft.

Seven: then the closure and the tamper evidence

A beverage is expected to show it has not been opened. This shelf carries no tamper evident band, which the containers section says plainly.

Why treatment comes first

It constrains the shelf life, the distribution, the label and the container, in that order. Choosing a bottle you like and discovering it cannot take your fill temperature is the expensive sequence.

And write the plan down as you go

The hazard analysis, the control measures and the records are a document that has to exist. Building it alongside the process is far easier than reconstructing it once production has started.

References

21 CFR 120.24, process controls for juice. A processor must use "control measures that will consistently produce, at a minimum, a 5 log (i.e., 10 5) reduction" in the pertinent microorganism, effective "for a period at least as long as the shelf life of the product when stored under normal and moderate abuse conditions", with the requirements met and "final product packaging within a single production facility operating under current good manufacturing practices". law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 101.17(g), the warning statement for untreated juice, required verbatim: "WARNING: This product has not been pasteurized and, therefore, may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems." Exempt where the product achieves the 5-log reduction or meets equivalent HACCP process controls, and for juice sent for further manufacturing at another facility with documentation disclosing the lack of processing. law.cornell.edu

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 18 October 2026. The beverages shelf is 558 rows: 305 containers and 253 closures, 246 PET and 59 glass, from 30 to 976 mL with a median of 118. No HDPE and no PP. The closures include 159 continuous thread, 27 spouted, 19 flip top and 18 lug and twist, and no crown finish anywhere on the shelf.

Written from 21 CFR 120.24 and 101.17(g), and from the catalog as it stood on 18 October 2026. Whether a given product is a juice, an acidified food, a dietary supplement or an alcoholic beverage decides which regime applies, and that determination is specific to a formula and a label.