Salsa Co-Packers: Acidified Food Rules, pH and Quotes

A salsa co-packer cooks, fills and seals your salsa to your recipe, most often hot-filled into glass jars for the shelf. Jarred salsa is most often an acidified food to FDA: tomatoes are joined by onions, peppers, garlic and cilantro, which are low-acid, and the salsa is made safe by bringing the whole jar to a pH of 4.6 or below. That means the co-packer's plant is registered for acidified foods, files a process for your salsa, and records the pH of every batch. Fresh salsa sold cold is a different product, with a short life and a refrigerated co-packer. In the example below, a salsa maker selling 3,000 jars a month pays $3.67 a jar making it itself, $3.30 with a small acidified foods co-packer, and $2.59 with a larger plant whose minimum is four months of sales. Below is the rules, fresh or shelf-stable, what the co-packer needs, three quotes, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Shelf-stable salsa is most often an acidified food: low-acid vegetables brought to pH 4.6 or below with acid.
• The co-packer's plant registers with FDA on Form FDA 2541 and files a process for your salsa.
• Every batch reaches an equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower, made to the filed process, and the pH is recorded.
• A process authority reviews your recipe and sets the process before the first run.
• Fresh, refrigerated salsa is a different product: a refrigerated co-packer and a short shelf life.
• Chunky salsas take longer to reach a stable pH; agree on the cut sizes.
• TaroStack keeps track of your jars at the co-packer, by lot, with each run's pH on the record. More below.

Why salsa is an acidified food

FDA's acidified foods are low-acid foods to which acids or acid foods are added, with a water activity above 0.85 and a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below (21 CFR 114.3). Peppers, onions and garlic are low-acid; tomatoes are borderline; vinegar or lime brings the jar down. A processor of acidified foods registers with FDA on Form FDA 2541 within 10 days of starting and files its processes (21 CFR 108.25), and each batch is made so it reaches an equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower within the time the scheduled process sets, with enough heat, and according to that process (21 CFR 114.80). Big chunks of onion and pepper take longer than the liquid around them to reach that pH, which is why the cut size is part of the process. This is general information, not legal advice. How pH is measured is in pH testing for acidified foods, and the process authority's role in process authority letter.

Fresh or shelf-stable

Fresh salsa, sold cold with a "keep refrigerated" label, isn't made shelf-stable by acidifying and heating; it relies on the cold and a short shelf life, often a couple of weeks, and needs a co-packer with a refrigerated line and cold delivery. Shelf-stable jarred salsa needs the acidified foods process above and can sit on a store shelf for months. Many salsa brands sell both, from two different co-packers. How a salsa business is started is in how to start a salsa business.

What a salsa co-packer will ask you for

• The recipe by weight, with cut sizes and each ingredient's spec.
• The process authority's letter for the recipe: target pH, fill temperature, hold time.
• Specs: heat level, texture, fill weight, color.
• Jars, lids and labels, or approval for the co-packer to buy them.
• A pilot batch matched to your kitchen batch, and a forecast and deposit.

Three quotes compared

Saguaro Salsa Co., a made-up salsa and tortilla maker in Tucson, Arizona, I use in these examples, sells about 3,000 sixteen-ounce jars of shelf-stable salsa a month. In its own kitchen, a jar takes $1.40 of tomatoes, chiles, onions, garlic and lime, 95 cents of jar, lid and label, and 75 cents of labor:

Making it itself, Saguaro rents a commercial kitchen for $250 a day and fills 500 jars, six days a month, recording each batch's pH. The small co-packer saves 37 cents a jar and those days, and takes on the registration and process filing for its plant. The larger plant saves another 71 cents, but its 12,000-jar run is four months of salsa and $30,200 out. How co-packer quotes compare more generally is in co-packer vs commercial kitchen.

Get the calculator

Download the salsa co-packer quote calculator. One column for each quote and one for making it yourself: type the run you'd order, the minimum, the loss, the setup, the fee or your labor, ingredients, packaging, freight and storage, and the run's cost, the months it takes to sell at your sales a month, the storage while it sells, the cost of each good jar and the cash out before it sells fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Jarred salsa at one co-packer, fresh salsa at another, tortillas in your own kitchen, and jars, lids and labels in three places. A spreadsheet can't say how many jars of the hot salsa are at the co-packer, which run a store's jars came from, or what that run's pH readings were.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps track of your jars at the co-packer, by lot, with each run's pH on the record.

pH on the batch. A batch record form carries your own fields, such as the pH readings and fill temperatures the co-packer reports, with limits, on the run they belong to. A lot with a reading out of range can be held, kept out of what can be sold.

The co-packer as a site. The co-packer's premises can be a site, so the jars and lids you send are a transfer, shown in transit until they arrive, and the cases there are counted as yours. More than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.

Lots and recalls. Each run gets a lot, and the lots each store got are recorded as they ship, so a recall report shows which stores got a run. How stock across places works is in multi-location inventory.

Batch records, holds, sites, transfers and lots are on Standard at $99 a month for more than one site. 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.

Questions people also ask

Is salsa an acidified food?

Shelf-stable salsa most often is: low-acid vegetables like peppers and onions brought to a pH of 4.6 or below with acid. A process authority can confirm for your recipe.

Does a salsa co-packer need to be registered with the FDA?

A plant making acidified foods registers with FDA on Form FDA 2541 and files a process for each product, in addition to its food facility registration.

What is the minimum order for a salsa co-packer?

In the example, 1,500 jars at a small acidified foods co-packer and 12,000 at a larger plant.

Can a co-packer make fresh salsa?

Some do, on refrigerated lines with cold delivery. Fresh salsa relies on staying cold and has a short shelf life.