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Home preserving
All Containers›Shop by use case›Home preserving›The products›Commercial processor or notShop all home preserving →
The products

Commercial processor or not

By Dwight Davis, Founder

On this page14
A household is not a commercial processor. And state law is what reaches one that sells.

Part 114 governs commercial processors

Of acidified foods. A household preserving for itself is not commercial processing and the part does not reach it.

So the coding requirement is not a household requirement

Which is worth stating plainly, because a code permanently visible to the naked eye is a demanding thing to put on a kitchen jar.

And the pH line still matters to a household

Not as a requirement but as the number the craft turns on. 4.6 is where the food safety literature divides methods.

Which is why this property quotes the definition

The definition is where the number appears in federal text, and the number is the one everybody uses.

A household that sells is a different question again

And it is governed by state cottage food law, which varies by state and is what actually decides what may be sold and how it must be labeled.

None of which is described here

A national catalog cannot speak to fifty schemes, and nothing on these pages attempts it.

Low-acid canned foods are a different part

Part 113, thermally processed low-acid foods packaged in hermetically sealed containers, which is more demanding again and is not described anywhere here.

Which is the practical reason the 4.6 line matters commercially

Crossing it moves a product from one part to the other, and the two are not comparable in difficulty.

Scheduled processes are also outside this property

A commercial acidified food operates to a process established by a competent authority, and nothing here describes one.

So read this for the container consequences

Glass, a liner, a markable surface, and the absence of a two-piece canning lid. Those are the parts a packaging catalog can speak to.

And take the pH number as a landmark

Which is how most people encounter it anyway, and it is quoted here from the text rather than from memory.

And the container questions are the same either way

Glass, a liner, a markable surface and a closure that matches the finish. Those apply to a household jar and a commercial one alike.

The rest belongs with a process authority

Or with a state program, depending on whether the operation sells.

References

21 CFR 114.3. Acidified foods are defined as "low-acid foods to which acid(s) or acid food(s) are added", which "have a water activity (aw) greater than 0.85 and have a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below". Low-acid foods are defined as "any foods, other than alcoholic beverages, with a finished equilibrium pH greater than 4.6 and a water activity (aw) greater than 0.85." Part 114 governs commercial processors of acidified foods; low-acid canned foods fall under part 113, which is not described here. law.cornell.edu
21 CFR 114.80(b): "Each container or product shall be marked with an identifying code permanently visible to the naked eye." The section continues that "The required identification shall specify in code the establishment where the product was packed, the product contained therein, and the year, day, and period during which it was packed", and that "The packing period code shall be changed often enough to enable ready identification of lots during their sale and distribution." Paragraph (a)(4) provides that "Testing and examinations of containers shall occur often enough to ensure that the container suitably protects the food from leakage or contamination." law.cornell.edu
Written from 21 CFR 114.3 and 114.80 and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. Part 114 governs commercial processors of acidified foods; home canning for a household is not commercial processing, and low-acid canned foods fall under part 113 which is a different and more demanding part not described here. Nothing on these pages tells anyone how to preserve anything, and cottage food laws, which are state law, are what actually govern a home preserver selling jars. There is no two-piece canning lid anywhere in this catalog.