Bottles and tubs

Tubs and wide mouths, and where the taxonomy is wrong

Updated October 2026

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What the shelf actually says A set product has to be reachable Filling a set product is different too Pourable products are the other half Decide which half you are in before choosing Think about how it is eaten, not only how it is filled References

The constraint row for this group describes everything here as thin and poured. A set yogurt, a cheese spread and a cultured butter are none of those things.

What the shelf actually says

The dominant neck finish among the 165 qualifying containers is 89-400, which is a wide mouth, and the largest single format is a single wall jar. The catalog is describing a spooned product even where the taxonomy describes a poured one, which is a useful reminder that the shelf is evidence and the constraint row is an assertion.

A set product has to be reachable

Somebody eats a yogurt out of its container with a spoon and wants to get the last of it. A narrow neck on a set product is a daily irritation, and for a spread it makes the product nearly unusable. Width is a usability requirement rather than a preference.

Filling a set product is different too

Many set yogurts are filled before they set and incubated in the container, which means the container goes through the incubation and has to tolerate it. That is a specification question to settle before choosing a format, and it does not apply to a stirred style.

Pourable products are the other half

Milk, cream, kefir, drinking yogurt and the plant beverages all pour, and they want a neck that controls the pour and a closure that reseals cleanly for a product opened repeatedly over a week.

Decide which half you are in before choosing

The split is not between dairy and plant-based; it is between set and poured, and it cuts across both. Choosing the format from the group rather than from the product is how a maker ends up with the wrong neck.

Think about how it is eaten, not only how it is filled

A pot eaten from directly at a desk is a different object from one spooned into a bowl at home, and the first wants a lid that comes off cleanly with one hand and does not drip. These details decide repeat purchase far more than the graphics do.

References

21 CFR 131.200, Yogurt: not less than 3.25 percent milkfat and not less than 8.25 percent milk solids not fat, with “a pH of 4.6 or lower measured on the finished product within 24 hours after filling.” law.cornell.edu

21 CFR 133.182, Soft ripened cheeses: “If the milk used is not pasteurized, the cheese so made is cured at a temperature of not less than 35 °F for not less than 60 days.” law.cornell.edu

Written from federal regulation and FDA guidance, not from a laboratory. Pasteurization of milk and milk products in final package form for interstate commerce is a federal requirement, and what your state permits inside its own borders is a separate question. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture, not a determination that you comply.