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Pickles and ferments
All Containers›Shop by use case›Pickles and ferments›Jars and lids›Glass or plasticShop all pickles and ferments →
Jars and lids

Glass or plastic

By Dwight Davis, Founder

Updated

On this page5
For a retail pickle the answer is usually glass, and the reasons are not only aesthetic. Hot fill, acid resistance and what the buyer expects all point the same way.

Why glass wins for this product

A pickle is bought partly on appearance and glass is the only honest way to show it. Glass is also indifferent to acid over a long shelf life and takes a hot fill without deforming, which matters for a quick pickle filled hot. And the category expectation is glass: a pickle in a plastic jar reads as a different, cheaper product whether or not it is.

What glass costs you

Weight and breakage, and both are real. A case of full glass jars is heavy enough that shipping is a line item rather than an afterthought, which is the thing that catches makers the first time somebody orders by mail. Breakage costs twice: the jar and the mess it makes of everything near it.

Where plastic genuinely answers

Food service, large formats, and anywhere the container is opened in a kitchen rather than displayed. A gallon of pickles going to a restaurant does not need to be seen and does need to not shatter on a tile floor. That is a different product line rather than a cheaper version of the retail one.

Check the material against the process

If the product is hot filled, the container has to take the fill temperature without deforming, and that is a property of the material rather than of the shape. Match it to the process you are actually running rather than to the process you read about, because a plastic chosen for a cold-filled product and used for a hot-filled one fails in a way that is obvious and expensive.

References

United States Department of Agriculture. Complete Guide to Home Canning, Guide 6: Preparing and Canning Fermented Foods and Pickled Vegetables. Revised 2015, National Center for Home Food Preservation. nchfp.uga.edu
National Center for Home Food Preservation. Pickling: General Information. nchfp.uga.edu
Written from federal regulation and published extension guidance, not from a laboratory. An acidified food is a federal category with a filed process behind it, and your state enforces it. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture and a process authority, not a determination that you comply.