Bottling Sauces

[HBMTN]

I was wondering how one would go about bottling ones own BBQ sauce? I know every state probably has it's own rules and the research I have done I see you need to get the nutrition anylisis and labels done.

What I am wondering is, I know how to can pint jars and such but if your using a BBQ sauce bottle plastic or glass,(maybe even gallon plastic jugs) how to you get the proper heat sealing al all with the little foil seal thing that is usually under the cap that has to be removed before first use?

I am considering bottling my sauces in like 12oz containers for retail out of my vending trailer but more interested in making larger one gallon containers for use in catering and concessions where I don't have to make 3 to 5 gallons of sauce EVERY week. I would like to take one day and make 20 to 40 gallons and get me a few months.

[chachahut]

If you're sauce is high enough in acid, you really do not have to worry much about the hot bottling/seal thing. We do - but that's mostly because I'm paranoid. Also - if you keep the sauce in the fridge, you do not need to be concerned about hot bottling. We run up multiple gallon batches each week for the Hut & pour them off into cleaned & sanitized Frank's Hot Sauce & Worcestershire gallon jugs. We keep these in the fridge. We also make up To Go bottles of our sauces (8oz squeeze bottles) we keep refrigerated & label as such for sale.

[HBMTN]

Yes that is pretty much what I am doing, but I would like to get away from making sauce once a week. I'd like to make sauce to last me for 8 to 12 weeks at one time and open as needed.

[chachahut]

If you go with glass gallon jugs all you'll need to do is sanitize the jugs, bottle hot & then invert the bottle for a few minutes to set the seal.

[chachahut]

And if you wanted to be extra safe - you could then put the sealed bottles in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.

[HBMTN]

So all you need to do is put the foil seal on, screw the cap tight and hot bath 20 minutes? If so this may work for me to get set up to do. I think in my state it is regulated through the Dept. of Ag. I will check in to it.

Thanks

[Southern Home Boy]

Also, double check the FDA regs, but I believe you only need nutritional info on your lables if you sell more than 10,000 units per year.

I've hot-packed eight cases of 12 16oz. bottles in a day (two cases each of four different sauces). It was a long day, but provided a LOT of sauce.

[chachahut]

No experience with the foil seal then capping. I get bottles with foil lined caps for bottling small batches. Most commercially available food grade sauce bottles have caps like that. When you invert the bottle, a seal is made. The additional water bath is a double insure against any contamination.

[HBMTN]

Oh I see, and you could maybe put the clear tamper proof heat shrink around the cap.

Thanks

[meatinc]

In real life I work at a Packaging Equipment Manufacturer so...

1st thing is that metal seal is called an Induction Seal. You need a machine to seal the induction seal onto the container. Typically they seal to a plastic container - not glass. This is for tamper evidency only. An alternate is to purchase closures that have a pressure sensitive seal - this is the paper / foam type seal - when you tighten the closure, the seal sticks to the container. Also mostly with plastic containers.

You could use a temper evident seal instead. In this case, you can purchase the TE Seals and shrink them with an industrial heat gun.

Filling - you will probably have to use a commercial kitchen to get past the local Health Department. Commercial Kitchens typically do not have any fillers - so this means filling by hand - usually hot filled which is above 180F. This is not fun but can and is being done all over the place. Depending on your batch sizes, the next step is to have a contract packager (co-packer) fill, cap, and label your product. The upside is you buy and ship the all the raw materials (sometimes they have them all) containers, caps, labels, and boxes to them, they package it and then may even store it for you. They can also assist with distribution or recommend a distributor. The down side is most co-packers want to run thousands if not tens of thousands of bottles. You may find one that is more flexible. I wouldn't worry about them stealing your formula - non-disclosures take care of that - but YOU supply the NDA - not them.

If you want some additional information or some names of some co-packers, PM or e-mail me and we can talk about it. If you want some more specific answers on equipment or process, I can help with that too.

[HBMTN]

Thanks Meatinc, I have the commercial kitchen and am set up as far as health dept. From what I can find here in Va I have to go through Dept of Ag for sauce and bottling. I did not know if you had to use the foil seal to be proper or if a cap and heat shrink would be ok.

[Hoosier Chef]

Have a friend that did this. He found a local bottling company that advertises what you are looking for. Do some Google searching for boutique bottling or residential bottling. There should be someone within a state or two. They even help you develop it, if you need to.

[meatinc]

Originally Posted by HBMTN

Thanks Meatinc, I have the commercial kitchen and am set up as far as health dept. From what I can find here in Va I have to go through Dept of Ag for sauce and bottling. I did not know if you had to use the foil seal to be proper or if a cap and heat shrink would be ok.

The Tamper Evident band and the induction seal are both just safety items in your case. If you were filling something flamible or hazardous like motor oil then DOT says you must use an induction seal. The HD or Ag probably wants you to use some type of safety but I doubt they dictate which one.

In you case, I would probably use the pressure sensitive safety seal in the closure as well as the TE band. Most consumers (according to research) feel the TE Band is the best because they can see it on the container. The TE Band can also add some color if you want, some companies use a solid color to hide the visual fill line in a glass container, or you can go clear.

The safety seal in the closure is more piece of mind for you and your customers and for the extra few cents, probably worth it.

[Papa's BBQ]

I am new to BBQ Brethren, but I have been bottling my Sauce for 2 years. I would like to offer my advice to anyone who is interested in bottling. Either message me through BBQ Brethren or info@papasbbq.com.
Best of luck to those who venture down this path

[Divemaster]

First of all, I was taught by a number of our members here that just putting hot sauce into a bottle and turning it over just doesn’t cut it.

Why would you risk submitting your customers to all the bad stuff that could come out of it? I too used to use a hot water bath to ‘Can’ my sauce and discovered that randomly a jar would ‘pop’ and loose its seal.

I now use a pressure canner that can be easily purchased (mine does a max of 14 quarts at a time) and takes less than 45 minutes to get up to pressure, can (20 minutes) and cool down (equalizing the pressure) leaving a product I can give to my customers without fear of a law suit coming at me for not taking the proper care in bottling.

To me it’s not worth the risk to not do it right. The following are the threads that started me on the right path. I know that they are talking about stocks but the same rules apply to sauces.

"Canning Beef and Chicken Stocks "
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...hlight=canning

"Can a BBQ’er can stock?"
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...hlight=canning