Getting started

So made, formed, or filled

On this page13

The opening sentence Made Formed And filled So two thirds of the sentence is a container choice Our data speaks to formed And it speaks to made, partly The rest of the section is about slack-fill Which makes the opening sentence broader than the paragraph A false bottom is the classic made case And our data lets you check it Worth reading both References

Filled is only one of the three.

The opening sentence

A food shall be deemed to be misbranded if its container is so made, formed, or filled as to be misleading.

Made

Which reaches how the container was constructed. A thick false bottom or a heavy shoulder that makes a container look larger than its capacity is about how it was made.

Formed

Which reaches its shape. A tall narrow container and a short wide one of the same capacity read very differently on a shelf.

And filled

Which is the slack-fill question, and is the only one of the three that depends on what the packer does rather than on what the container is.

So two thirds of the sentence is a container choice

Which is why this section belongs in a packaging catalog rather than in a labeling guide. The container can be misleading before anything is put in it.

Our data speaks to formed

Height and diameter are published, so a container's proportions are knowable. A 3,785 mL pail and a 3,785 mL tall canister hold the same amount and look different.

And it speaks to made, partly

Capacity is the actual capacity, so a container whose external volume exceeds its capacity is identifiable by comparing the two.

The rest of the section is about slack-fill

Paragraph (a) develops the filled limb in detail, with a definition and six exceptions, and the other two limbs are left to the opening sentence.

Which makes the opening sentence broader than the paragraph

A container can be misleading as made or as formed without any slack-fill question arising at all.

A false bottom is the classic made case

A container whose external height exceeds its usable depth looks larger than it holds, and nothing was put in it yet. That is a container decision, made at the mold.

And our data lets you check it

Capacity is the actual capacity and height and diameter are published, so a container whose external volume is far above its capacity is identifiable from the product page.

Worth reading both

Most discussion of this section is about slack-fill, and the sentence above it reaches further.

References

21 CFR 100.100, "Misleading containers": "A food shall be deemed to be misbranded if its container is so made, formed, or filled as to be misleading." Paragraph (a) continues: "A container that does not allow the consumer to fully view its contents shall be considered to be filled as to be misleading if it contains nonfunctional slack-fill. Slack-fill is the difference between the actual capacity of a container and the volume of product contained therein. Nonfunctional slack-fill is the empty space in a package that is filled to less than its capacity for reasons other than:" law.cornell.edu

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. 196 rows: 39 containers and 157 closures, and the largest-capacity shelf in this library. 950 to 18,927 mL with a median of 3,785, which is exactly one US gallon; all 37 containers with a capacity on file are over a quart, 21 are over a gallon and 5 are at five gallons. 32 HDPE and 7 PET, with no glass, polypropylene or metal. 22 white, 8 natural, 7 clear, 1 blue, 1 black. 20 tubs and pails, 10 jars, 9 bottles, and 12 of the 20 are pails. 9 plastic round pails, 5 PE wide mouth containers, 4 HDPE round tubs, 4 HDPE round tubs with handle, 4 plastic square grip containers, 3 HDPE single wall canisters, 2 tight head pails. 20 of the 39 have no neck finish recorded, which are the pails; 8 are at 110-400 and 5 at 120TT. Closures: 111 continuous thread polypropylene lids, 16 metal or aluminum CT caps, 10 dome lids, 7 plastic round pail lids, 6 round tub lids, 3 sealing discs. Liners: 46 heat induction seal, 22 F217, 22 No Liner, 21 unrecorded, 20 pressure sensitive, 10 foam, 8 Plastis standard, 8 PE foam.

Written from 21 CFR 100.100 and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. That section concerns misleading containers and is not a pet food labeling guide: the guaranteed analysis, nutritional adequacy statement, feeding directions and ingredient definitions that govern a pet food label come from state feed laws and the AAFCO model regulations, which are not federal and are not described here. Our capacity field is the actual capacity of the container, which is one of the two terms in the regulation's own definition of slack-fill; the other is a property of your product.