Process guide
Hot Fill Co-Packers for Sauces, Juices, Teas, and Shots
Use hot fill when high-acid juice, tea, shot, or sauce can take 185–200°F and must be ambient. Heat plus acidity is the kill step. You do not need a retort shell.
Do not send never-cooked or probiotic juice here (that is HPP). Do not send low-acid ambient broth or plant milk here (pH greater than 4.6 is LACF — retort or aseptic). Dairy is plant-specific: Yoshida refuses it; InnoMark does not produce high-pH refrigerated products.
Acid vs low-acid, PET vs glass vs pouch, and the full decision table sit in the textbook below.
Hot fill co-packers
Facts below are from the plant’s own pages fetched 21 Aug 2026. If a cell is blank on their site, it is unpublished. This is not a complete census.
Omitted from this table
- Lenis Foods & Co-Packing (leniscopacking.com): homepage states the company is no longer in operation. Address published is Abbotsford, BC, Canada. Not a US plant.
- Motherlode Co-Packing (Hudson, CO): sauce/condiment co-packer with kettles and 12-head fillers; their own site does not say “hot fill.” LinkedIn copy is not used here.
| Plant | City / state | Formats / process as stated | Certs published | MOQ published | USDA vs FDA | Organic | Site | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland Packaging | Elkridge, MD (7030 Troy Hill Dr.) and Halethorpe, MD (3610 Commerce Drive) | Hot fill: glass (segregated), PET, LLDPE. Also cold fill and HPP (separate). | SQF (they claim last inspection 98/100). Organic, Kosher, Halal, Non-GMO listed as certifications they can help a product line obtain — not stated as always-on plant certs. | Unpublished | Unpublished | Organic: help-your-line-get-certified language only | marylandpackaging.com | Aug 21, 2026 |
| Select Juice, LLC | Lancaster, PA (1879 Commerce Park East on the privacy policy; contact page does not print the street) | Hot fill as a preservation method; 900–1,500 BPH. Stock PET 2/10/12/14 oz, 1 L, 2 oz Boston Round; 25 oz HDPE. Glass: unpublished. Also cold-fill, HTST, HPP. | PA Dept. of Ag GMP; SQF; FDA-registered; USDA Organic; Non-GMO Verified; Kosher | Unpublished. Contact page: they will not answer MOQ/pricing emails. | FDA-registered stated. FSIS: unpublished. | USDA Organic stated | Co-pack · Certs | Aug 21, 2026 |
| InnoMark Inc. | St. George, UT | Plastic and glass 8 oz–1 gal; hot-fill aluminum cans. Juices, teas, functional beverages, wellness shots. Does not run carbonated, high-pH refrigerated, or alcohol. | USDA Organic; Kosher; private-label FAQ: FDA-registered, Utah GMP | Homepage: as low as 7,500 liters. FAQ: hot-fill liquid > 7,000 liters (powders > 3,000 kg). | FDA-registered (private-label FAQ). FSIS: unpublished. | USDA Organic stated | innomarkinc.com | Aug 21, 2026 |
| Big Brands LLC | Southern California plant (city unpublished). Homepage: multiple US facilities. Utah beverage site also lists hot fill. | Glass or PET on the hot-fill page; bottled lines 2–32 oz; pouch hot fill 4 oz–1 gal. | Homepage lists “SQF, GFSI, Organic, Kosher, certification and ability to meet additional quality standards” — held cert vs. “ability to meet” not separated. | Bottled page: 25,000 units, “depending on fill size.” Utah page: majority start at 25,000 MOQ per SKU. Retort page 100k units/SKU is not a hot-fill MOQ. | Unpublished (FDA.gov is a footer link, not a registration claim). | Organic listed as a capability, not a named certifier | Hot fill · Bottled | Aug 21, 2026 |
| Yoshida Foods International | Portland, OR | Plastic bottles only; bottled sauces and syrups; bulk totes, drums, pails. 32-head filler, 10-head capper, three 1,500-gal kettles. No dairy. | HACCP; Kosher Pareve (KOF-K); Organic (Oregon Tilth); SQF Level 2; AIB GMP | No per-SKU unit MOQ. Inquiry screens for 11,000 gallons/day, at least five times per year. Typical production day 11,000 gallons; capacity 2 million cases/year. | Unpublished | Oregon Tilth stated | Hot fill · Inquiry | Aug 21, 2026 |
| Creative Foodworks | San Antonio, TX | Hot-filled / acidified sauces, salsas, marinades, dressings, BBQ, hot sauce, queso, pasta sauce, drink mixes. Retail 8–32 oz (squeeze bottles, jars, bottles); foodservice 1–50 gallon. Glass and plastic. | SQF; Kosher (Orthodox Union); gluten-free (Gluten Free Food Program) | 1,000 gallon minimum batch; orders placed at least quarterly. Site: built for brands with real demand, “not first runs.” | Unpublished on the pages fetched | Unpublished | creativefw.com · Capabilities | Aug 21, 2026 |
| Paradise Food & Beverage Co. | Wilmington, DE | Hot-fill: “thermally processed beverages and sauces bottled at temperature.” Beverages: juices, lemonades, teas. Sauces: hot sauce, BBQ, dressings, marinades. Product examples include 16 oz PET, 64 oz HDPE, 16 oz glass. | Licensed, FDA-registered. Additional certifications “can be pursued for specific client programs.” | Exact MOQ unpublished (depends on product/format). Page: “Typical projects start at 100 units.” | FDA-registered stated. FSIS: unpublished. | Unpublished | myparadisefoods.com | Aug 21, 2026 |
On a small screen, scroll the table sideways. Cells are not smashed.
How to read the MOQ column
Published minimums are not comparable units. InnoMark quotes liters, Creative Foodworks gallons per batch, Big Brands units per SKU, Yoshida a gallons-per-day annual screen, Paradise a typical project start. Convert before you rank plants. If MOQ is unpublished, assume nothing.
Process decision (before you request an intro)
| Your SKU | First question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juice, tea, sports drink, wellness shot, acid sauce | Finished pH ≤ 4.6, no dairy, can take 185–200°F? | Hot fill. Pick PET vs glass from the table. | If heat kills the product → HPP/cold-fill. If pH > 4.6 ambient → retort/aseptic. |
| Hot sauce, BBQ, salsa, marinade | Acidified or naturally acid? Process authority letter? | Creative Foodworks / Yoshida / Paradise / Maryland (glass) are the sauce-shaped plants in this set. | Meat in the formula → ask USDA vs FDA before sampling. |
| Dairy drink, creamer, yogurt beverage | Can the plant run dairy? | Almost none of the plants above publish a dairy hot-fill program. Yoshida cannot. | Refrigerated dairy, aseptic, or retort — not this page. |
| Protein drink, broth, plant milk at pH > 4.6 | Is this LACF? | File a scheduled process. Look at retort plants (Big Brands publishes retort separately at 100k units/SKU). | Do not send it to a juice hot-fill line and hope. |
| Live probiotic / “never heated” juice | Will 185°F destroy the claim? | Yes. Use HPP (Select Juice, Maryland Packaging, Big Brands list HPP). | — |
| Carbonated or alcoholic | Does the plant say it will run it? | Big Brands hot-fill page includes alcoholic and non-alcoholic. InnoMark FAQ: no. | Different process (tunnel pasteurization, canning). |
On a small screen, scroll the table sideways — cells are not smashed.
Request an intro
If a plant in the table fits pH, format, and published minimum, we can introduce you. That is a named intro to a plant you already picked, not an AI match, not a blind RFQ blast, and not a guarantee they will take the SKU.
See the hot-fill directory cards for the same plants.
What hot fill is, acid vs low-acid, PET vs glass, decision table, gaps, sources
Textbook — after the shortlist
What hot fill actually is
Hot fill is a thermal fill, not a pressure cook. The product is heated, filled hot into a heat-capable container, closed, and held so the heat sanitizes the product, the headspace, and the closure. The pack is then cooled. As it cools, the headspace contracts and a vacuum forms.
Two plants publish fill temperatures on their own sites:
- InnoMark: product heated to 185–200°F, filled, sealed, inverted to sanitize the cap, then cooled.
- Big Brands: product heated to 194°F, filled into glass or PET, held 15–20 seconds, then cooled (their page also describes a rest to 180°F before cap — confirm the actual line sequence in a plant walkthrough).
Hot fill is the default ambient process for high-acid juices, teas, sports drinks, wellness shots, ketchup-style sauces, hot sauce, and many marinades. It is the wrong process when heat destroys the product you are selling, or when acidity cannot carry the safety case.
Acid vs low-acid (operator version)
A food with finished equilibrium pH greater than 4.6 and water activity greater than 0.85, packed in a hermetically sealed container for ambient sale, is a low-acid canned food. That class needs a filed scheduled process — typically retort or aseptic — not a sauce hot-fill line.
USDA vs FDA is a different cut. Meat- or poultry-containing sauces can fall under USDA FSIS. None of the plants in the table publish a clear “USDA-inspected meat line vs FDA juice line” split on the pages fetched. Organic is not the same as FSIS meat inspection.
What is still unpublished (do not invent it)
- USDA FSIS vs FDA for meat sauces.
- MOQ for Maryland Packaging and Select Juice; city for Big Brands’ Southern California hot-fill plant.
- Glass at Select Juice; Yoshida is plastic only.
- Lenis Foods is closed and Canadian — ignore stale SERP titles.
Sources fetched 21 Aug 2026 are linked in the table and on each company page. CoPack Connect, LinkedIn, and extension lists were not used as plant facts.