The products

Salt and seed

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Salt does not spoil It takes up water instead So the closure is the product And glass is excellent for it Salt is also corrosive to metal Seed is the opposite problem Which means a sealed container can be wrong Small containers, many of them Label with the variety and the year Clear so you can see the seed References

Salt lasts forever and seed is alive. Both are decided at the closure.

Salt does not spoil

It is a mineral. There is no shelf life question and no oxygen question, which removes most of what this category worries about.

It takes up water instead

Caking is the entire failure mode. Salt pulls moisture from the air and sets into a block, and a block is not a store, it is a problem.

So the closure is the product

A liner, a seal, and a jar that is actually airtight. 9 liners and sealing discs on this shelf and 22 dome lids.

And glass is excellent for it

45 glass containers, including 8 mason and paragon jars. Non-absorbing, non-reactive, and salt is one of the few things with no breakage downside in a pantry.

Salt is also corrosive to metal

Which rules out a metal lid without a liner, and makes the liner a chemical requirement rather than only a moisture one.

Seed is the opposite problem

It is alive and respiring, and the goal is to slow it down rather than to stop everything. Cool, dry and dark, and dried properly before it goes in.

Which means a sealed container can be wrong

Seed stored damp and then sealed will mould or rot. The drying happens before the container, and the container preserves a condition it cannot create.

Small containers, many of them

A seed collection is dozens of varieties in small quantities. 123 PET single wall jars here is the relevant format, bought as a set rather than individually.

Label with the variety and the year

Because viability falls with age at a rate that depends on the species, and a jar with no year is a jar you cannot plan around.

Clear so you can see the seed

93 clear containers. A seed store is checked by eye for moisture, mould and insect damage, and a white jar hides all three.

References

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. The emergency food and water shelf is 632 rows: 287 containers and 345 closures. 5 mL to 7,571 mL with a median of 237; 43 containers over a litre, 21 over a gallon, and none over three gallons. 153 PET, 65 HDPE, 45 glass, 24 PP. 210 jars, 59 bottles, 9 jugs, 8 tubs and pails, 1 tube. 93 clear, 66 white, 39 amber, 28 black, 24 natural. Closures: 283 continuous thread, 22 dome lids, 9 liners and sealing discs, 6 specialty, 5 flip top, 5 phenolic, 5 round tubs, 3 tub and pail lids.

The archetype behind this shelf is store-bulk-home: 950 to 8,000 mL, wide mouth, gasketed, PET and glass and HDPE, cold, solid, chunky, scooped, with "home pantry, wide mouth, gasketed, and it sits on a counter so it is seen" as its stated reason. It describes a kitchen canister rather than a long-term store, and the shelf sits mostly below even that window.

Written from 21 CFR 177.1520 and 21 CFR 177.1630, and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. We do not hold food-contact compliance documentation for any product and do not describe anything here as food grade; that is a statement from a manufacturer about a specific resin and its additives. No shelf life, water treatment or seed viability figures appear anywhere in this property, because none of them are a packaging question.