The brine itself, and other things made from what is left

Why it looks free

Because the cucumbers have already paid for it. A maker looking at drums of brine sees margin with no input cost, and the market is real: brine is sold for drinking, for cooking and to bars.

Why it is not

Selling it means it is a food product you are placing on the market, with everything that implies. It needs its own identity, its own label with the five required elements, and a process appropriate to what it is. The fact that it was a step in making something else does not exempt it, and used brine from a finished batch is not the same material as fresh brine either.

The honest version

If the brine is worth selling, make it as a product: a batch intended for it, measured and processed and labeled as such. That is a second product with a second process, and it should be decided the same way as any other second product rather than as a way to use up what is in the drum.

The same logic reaches the solids

Odd sizes, hollow cucumbers and the tail of a crate have a legitimate home in a relish, and that is a better answer than trying to sell them as something they are not. The general principle across this section is that a second product is a decision, and the ones that get made by accident on a packing day are the ones that come back.

Bulk to a business is still a product

Selling brine in volume to a bar or a kitchen feels less like retail and is not a different legal question. What changes is the label, not whether one is needed, and a container going to a commercial buyer still has to say what it is and who made it. Makers who would never put an unlabeled jar on a shelf will hand over an unlabeled drum, because it does not feel like selling a product.

References