A commercial hot sauce is made in ten steps: receive and sort the peppers, wash and stem them, prepare them (roasted, fresh or fermented), weigh the batch to the formula, blend, cook, check the pH, hot fill the bottles, cool and code them, and record the batch. Most shelf-stable hot sauces are acidified foods: peppers are low in acid, so vinegar or another acid brings the sauce down to the pH your process authority set. That's why two steps carry the weight. The pH check proves the acid did its job before anything is bottled, and the hot fill, filling at or above the temperature in your process and inverting the bottle, keeps what's in the bottle and on the cap safe on a shelf. Every batch is filled under a scheduled process filed with FDA for that sauce and that bottle size, by someone who's completed an acidified foods school. In the example below, a Tucson kitchen runs a 5-gallon batch of roasted green chile sauce.
The short version
- Ten steps: receive, wash and stem, prepare, weigh, blend, cook, pH, hot fill, cool and code, record.
- Weigh by formula: the vinegar's share is what makes the sauce safe.
- Check the pH of every batch against your process authority's limit before bottling.
- Hot fill at or above your process's temperature, cap, and invert.
- Code every bottle with its lot; record pH, temperatures and the count.
- A filed scheduled process for each sauce and bottle size, and a trained supervisor.
- TaroStack records each batch with its pH, its lot and the pepper lots that went in. More below.
The ten steps
| Step | What happens | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Receive | Peppers checked and given a lot | Supplier, lot, weight |
| 2. Wash and stem | Washed, stems and bad peppers removed | Weight after trimming |
| 3. Prepare | Roasted, used fresh, or a fermented mash | Roast time or mash lot |
| 4. Weigh | Each ingredient weighed to the formula | Weights, ingredient lots |
| 5. Blend | Blended smooth | |
| 6. Cook | Brought to the cook temperature in the process | Temperature, time |
| 7. pH check | Calibrated meter, against the process limit | pH, meter check |
| 8. Hot fill | Filled at or above the process temperature, capped, inverted | Fill temperature, count |
| 9. Cool and code | Cooled, lot code and best-by on each bottle | Lot, best-by |
| 10. Record | Good bottles counted, sheet signed | Good bottles, initials |
The licenses behind the process are in how to start a hot sauce business, and what the process authority's letter says in process authority letter.
The rules behind steps 7 and 8
| Rule | Where |
|---|---|
| Registration and filing | The facility registered within 10 days of first processing; each sauce's scheduled process filed, in each container size, before it's packed (21 CFR 108.25(c)) |
| Supervisor | Processing supervised by someone who completed a school FDA approves (21 CFR 114.10) |
The pH limit, cook and fill temperatures for your sauce come from your scheduled process, not from this page. This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a 5-gallon batch of green chile sauce
Saguaro Salsa Co., a made-up salsa, hot sauce and tortilla maker in Tucson, Arizona, bottles its roasted green chile hot sauce in 5 oz bottles for its market table and two grocers. Its process authority set a pH limit of 3.8 and a fill temperature of at least 185°F for this sauce and bottle. One Tuesday batch:
| Step | What happened |
|---|---|
| Receive | 22 lb of green chiles, lot GC-1013, from a Willcox farm |
| Wash and stem | 19.5 lb after stems and three soft chiles |
| Prepare | Roasted 12 minutes, peeled |
| Weigh | Chiles 16.5 lb, white vinegar 20.0 lb, garlic 1.3 lb, salt 0.7 lb, lime juice 1.0 lb |
| Blend and cook | Blended, brought to 195°F |
| pH | 3.6 against 3.8, meter calibrated that morning |
| Hot fill | Filled at 188°F to 190°F, capped, inverted 3 minutes |
| Cool and code | Lot HS-1015, best by Oct 2027 |
| Record | 118 good bottles; 2 rejected for low fill |
Thirty-nine and a half pounds of sauce, about 4.7 gallons, filled 120 bottles, and two went back for low fill. The cost of a bottle is in hot sauce business plan, and the steps' filings in FCE registration.
Get the run sheet
Download the hot sauce production run sheet. Two sheets: a blank run sheet to print for each batch, with the ten steps, the check at each and its target, and spaces for the actual reading, the time and initials; and the same run filled in from the example. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The run sheet records one batch. A recall question runs across them: which bottles of HS-1015 went to which grocer, and which other batches used chiles from GC-1013.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack records each batch with its readings, its lot and its ingredient lots.
Batches from the recipe. A batch of green chile sauce takes chiles, vinegar and bottles off stock by the formula, and the actual amounts can be changed when the kettle differs.
Your own fields. Fields of your own on the batch record hold the pH, the cook and fill temperatures and who checked them, on a phone at the kettle or on a printed form.
Lots both ways. The batch records the chile lot it used, and each grocer's order records the sauce lot it got, so one recall report runs from GC-1013 to every store.
| The job | Binder | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| A batch's pH and temperatures | A sheet on a clipboard | Fields on the batch record |
| Which chiles went into a batch | Written, maybe | Lots on the batch |
| Which grocers got a lot | Invoices | One recall report |
| What a bottle costs | A guess | True cost from the recipe and batch |
Recipes, batches, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.