Bottle sizes, and the headspace argument

The range we hold

The qualifying shelf runs from 100 ml to about 946 ml. The small end is a tasting, gift and finishing-oil size; the large end is a kitchen bottle for something used regularly. Both ends are well covered and the decision between them is not mainly about cost.

Headspace grows as the bottle empties

Every pour replaces oil with air, so the second half of a bottle oxidizes faster than the first. For an expensive finishing oil used a teaspoon at a time, a large bottle means months of the product sitting over a growing volume of air. The small bottle is the better product even though it looks like the more expensive way to buy.

Which means the size is part of the date

A shelf life printed on a 946 ml bottle is making a promise about oil the buyer will still be using in six months. The same oil in a 250 ml bottle is a much easier promise to keep. If you sell both, consider whether they honestly carry the same date.

Net quantity comes from the bottle

It is a required label element and a claim about every unit, so a size change is a label change. That is reason enough to settle the bottle before artwork, and the panel area available is another.

Price the small size as its own product

A 100 ml bottle and a 500 ml bottle cost nearly the same to fill, label and handle, so costing them from a per-ounce figure makes the small one look more profitable than it is. Cost a bottle as a bottle and decide what each format has to earn.

References