Why Ocean Spray Intentionally Labels Its Cranberry Sauce Upside-Down

When it comes to Thanksgiving favorites, research shows Americans rank cranberry sauce squarely in the middle between all-stars like turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing, and less popular dishes like turnips and tofu. This still translates to more than 67 million cans of Ocean Spray’s jellied cranberry sauce sold each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (Ocean Spray dominates the market with roughly 70% share.) If you’re among the 76% of American consumers who have purchased cranberry sauce for the holidays, per Ocean Spray, you may have noticed you have to flip the can over to open it. For years, I’ve wondered why. This year, I finally got to the bottom of it. One whole log A spokesperson for Ocean Spray told me this is no accident. The cans are intentionally filled and labeled with the rounded edge on the top and the sharper edge on the bottom because “there’s an air bubble vacuum on the rounded side, which makes it easier to get the sauce out in one whole log” after the can is flipped. You read it here first: “Head space” remains at the top of the can as the sauce gels, which is vital to easily removing it later. “The consumer then can swipe the edge of the can with a knife to break the vacuum and the log will slide out,” the spokesperson added. The sauce gels thanks in part to cranberries’ natural pectin, a polymer that helps “glue the plant cells together,” as noted in this explainer on the science behind cranberry sauce. “When cranberries are cooked, their pectin polymers tangle and interact, forming a net that traps dissolved sugar molecules so they can't flow,” Scientific American explained. In fact, pectin is commonly used as a thickener to set jams and jellies of all kinds. It’s also why cranberry sauce jiggles—and why it might otherwise be hard to get out of a can in one fell swoop. Ocean Spray did not comment on how long it has canned cranberry sauce this way, but its website notes Ocean Spray brand cranberry sauce dates back to 1912. Before then, cranberries—which are now grown in the northern U.S. states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin—were a regional fruit that was only available for a short time in the fall. Canning, however, helped broaden the market. Around 2005, Ocean Spray briefly switched to a two-piece can, but the spokesperson said the brand received “significant consumer feedback that they couldn’t get the sauce out in a log.” And so the upside-down cans returned. “Ocean Spray does not see this as a problem that needs solving—by filling sauce this way, it creates space in the bottom of the can to minimize the vacuum effect caused due to the mass of the product,” the spokesperson said. “Without it, there’d be a lot more frustrated customers trying to shake or having to spoon it out.” Butterball’s Turkey Hotline Has Been Preventing Thanksgiving Disasters for 35 Years

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Why Ocean Spray Intentionally Labels Its Cranberry Sauce Upside-Down

The mystery of the Thanksgiving staple has been solved

Lisa Lacy

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