Hot pack or raw pack

What each one does

A raw pack goes into the jar cold and takes the brine hot. It keeps more of the texture because the product spends less time heated, and it typically shrinks after processing, so a jar that looked full at packing looks less full on the shelf.

A hot pack heats the product before it goes in. It shrinks before packing rather than after, which means the jar you sealed is the jar the customer sees, and it generally fits more product per jar. The cost is paid in crispness.

This is a product decision, not a technique

Neither is correct in general. A crisp spear sold on its snap wants the raw pack and the shrinkage that comes with it. A product where the jar has to look full and the texture is less of the appeal is better hot packed. What matters is choosing once and staying with it, because the two produce visibly different jars and alternating between them is the inconsistency page in another form.

The processing time follows the choice

Process times differ between the two, so this is not a decision that can be changed on the day without changing the process with it. Commercially that means it is part of what the filed process covers, and switching pack style is a change to your process rather than a preference.

Decide it before the label is designed as well. Fill weight, appearance and the claim on the label all follow from it.

Shrinkage is what customers write about

The raw-pack jar that looked full at packing and arrives looking three-quarters full is the most common complaint this decision produces, and it is not a fault. It is the trade being paid. If the product is sold raw packed for texture, the headroom is worth saying something about rather than leaving a customer to conclude they were short-filled, because the alternative explanation they reach for is the unflattering one.

References