Metal cans have been the preferred method of canning food since they were first invented in the 1800s. While some believe that glass jars are still the best option, metal cans offer many advantages to their glass counterparts.
Metal Cans For Canning Foods
These advantages include their durability, ease of use, and affordability, among others. As such, food manufacturers should consider using metal cans for canning foods to improve the quality of their products and save money in the process.
Glass Jars or Metal Cans?
One of the biggest debates when it comes to canning foods is whether it’s best to use glass jars or metal cans. Each has its own pros and cons, but many people feel that metal cans are more difficult to clean and maintain than glass jars, which are also not as durable.
For those who are on the fence about using glass jars or metal cans in canning food items, here are a few of the reasons why you should consider using metal cans instead of glass jars:
1. Zero Waste
Metal cans are an all-around better option than glass jars or plastic containers. While some plastic and glass containers have a useful lifespan of decades, metal cans last up to 100 years and can still be recycled at that point. They also last longer than paperboard cartons.
And compared with glass, metal is a whole lot easier to recycle. In most cases, it can go straight from your recycling bin into a metal shredder—no washing required! Best of all, almost anyone can open one safely and easily with just one hand.
2. Durability and Strength
A primary benefit of metal cans for canning foods is that they are durable and strong. They’re less expensive, lighter, and more portable than glass. Plus, they don’t crack or break as easily as plastic.
In addition, when you’re transporting or storing your food, metal cans won’t break or shatter easily as glass jars might. The durability of metal cans also makes them great for long-term storage.
3. Premium Look
Metal cans are great-looking, shiny, and elegant. When you put food into a metal can, it just looks expensive and of high quality. Consumers can tell just by looking at a metal can if they want to buy it or not.
Using metal cans makes your food look fresh and fun because of their unique design. That is why so many food manufacturers use them today.
4. Light Weight
Metal cans are generally lighter than glass and other food packaging options. For instance, the average 12-pack metal beer cans weigh less than the average beer bottles packaged in glass containers.
In terms of transportation and shipment, this could mean a significant reduction in costs. Also, this could suggest added convenience to the team handling your products because they can be efficiently shipped and stored.
5. Metal Cans Are Easier to Reseal
Unlike glass jars, metal cans can be resealed. This is especially helpful if you’re storing foods that need to be stored in a refrigerator or freezer. It also gives food manufacturers an opportunity to create new recipes, flavours, and textures that take advantage of consumers’ desire for convenient products they can store at home.
6. Better Temperature Control During Retorting Processes (such as canning, cooking etc.)
Food cans that are made from metal, whether aluminium or tin-plated steel, will provide better temperature control and conductivity than glass. This is important because as food heats up, its natural sugars and starches begin to thicken, which thickens faster in acidic foods (tomatoes) and slower in alkaline foods (apples). This means you’ll have less chance of overcooking your meals if you use metal cans over glass ones.
You can even store canned foods in your pantry without worrying about their safety or freshness. They won’t degrade over time as plastic bottles might, meaning you don’t need to worry about discarding older cans with spoiled contents.
7. Excellent Mechanical and Barrier Properties
Metal cans are easy to handle. They can withstand collisions, vibrations, and even stacking, making them ideal for long-distance transport and storage. Also, they have unparalleled blocking properties. They don’t just block gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapour, but they also block light, which is known to contribute to deterioration and spoilage of the content.
Choose Metal Cans for Canning Foods, Always!
Metal cans offer significant advantages over glass containers. They’re lighter in weight, keep carbonation well, resist rust, denting, abrasion, pitting, and do not break when dropped or handled roughly.
The two main benefits of metal containers — durability and aesthetics — are also why metal cans are such an ideal choice for packaging food. With metal cans being such an environmentally friendly option, there’s never been a better time to switch to them.
Metal cans are generally an excellent packaging choice for a wide variety of food products due to their superior cost-effectiveness and convenience compared to other food packaging options. Hopefully, we have given you all the more reasons why canning foods in metal cans is the best way to go.
Find World-Class and Sustainable Metal Cans Here at MC Packaging!
Customers want their food packaged in environmentally friendly containers, but many brands use plastic to create their products because metal containers cost more.
That’s not how this should work. Plastic is toxic, heavy and will take hundreds of years to break down. Using metal cans for food packaging ensures that your customers are getting their food from a sustainable source without making you (or them) pay an arm and a leg.
