I’ve got assorted jars that I use for storing crap in. I notice that the Best Foods mayonnaise jar lid looks exactly like a minced garlic jar lid from a different vendor. The mayonnaise jar is glass and the garlic jar is plastic. The lids appear to be interchangeable. I’ve also noticed similar similarities in condiment lids for various times of jars.
Granted, the precision for a jar lid, especially those with just “multiple nubs” does not compare to that of a finely crafted Campagnolo derailleur, but the lids look decided similar if not exact. In any case, It would make life easier for me and my jar collection if lids were standardized. On the other hand this would make for a very boring world and kitchen cupboard, so i don’t really support the concept.
Now sauce bottles are a completely different creature. I went months with a half assed water bottle lid on my Frank’s Hot Sauce bottle after the original lid went missing in the bowels of my kitchen. I fortunately found the lid to my Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce and was able to not have to half ass it with a wine cork.
In any case, how many jar manufacturers are there, and are they all in China these days? Hey, I just noticed that Jarden still makes Ball jars in America!
I do a lot of canning (blue ribbon winner at both county and state level, thank you very much).
Virtually all canning jars available commercially in the US are made by Jarden Corp. – Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest. Practically speaking though the only brand I find in local stores is Ball.
Canning jars regardless of size or style use either a regular mouth or a wide mouth lid. Makes it easy for us canners – jars and rings are reusable but lids are not. I keep a spare box of lids of each size around the house so when I want to can I’m sure to have the right size lid.
What makes you say this? Frank’s is made in America and Lee Kum Kee is based in Hong Kong. I just went and checked. The lids aren’t even close. Franks’s is threaded and Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce has nubs. I knew this without even going to my kitchen because those are the specific condiments I lost the lids to.
There’s at least 10 different condiment lids in my kitchen. Hell, I probably have 10 different incompatible lids in hot sauce alone.
There’s no universal standardization like you see with nuts and bolts or electrical plugs or things of that nature.
But it certainly makes sense that a bottling factory with equipment for product X would find it useful to bottle product Y with the same equipment, and that may mean a similar bottle.
Some companies don’t even do their own bottling; they’ll contract with a bottler who handles many different brands.
There are industry standard lids and caps. You can, of course, have custom made anything. It depends on how differentiated you want your packaging to be. That said, capping equipment has to match your cap…so be careful what you ask for. Some large manufacturers make their own packaging, but most buy it from manufacturers. There are catalogues to pick from.
I designed a package for powdered metal some years back. I sketched out the plastic jar I wanted (a unique shape that would allow for the long warning label, as well as easy lifting and pouring. It’s heavy stuff) and asked for a standard 63mm cap on it. That allowed me to pay from the custom blow mold, but use cheaper off the shelf lids.
So, bottom line…there are standard sizes …but there are a lot of them.
