I oftentimes ship a sauce only sold in my area to family at different elevations. The problem is that the bottle it’s sold in isn’t very secure and many times it’ll break in transit and leak everywhere.
What should I look for when shopping for bottles/containers to use for shipping?
Maybe you can repack it in bigger bottles so the air has more space to expand
Edit: I don’t think this is a good suggestion any more based on what others have said.
If it’s sauce, there probably isn’t much air. Space in the jar is a partial vacuum with some vapor from the sauce. Air in the container will let the sauce spoil.
You probably just need a heavier container.
Plastic bottles will swell but not burst.
The problem is these were packed sterile, and if you repack it’ll let in germs and cause spoilage.
Could resterilize by repacking in heavy duty canning jars with as little air as possible and re-steam them.
Technically yes, but if this is a sauce that doesn’t need refrigeration (including after opening) anyway, just not as big of an issue.
Another comment had a great point that less product = more air = more sensitive to different air pressures. Ideally, the product is in a plastic bottle already and OP can squeeze a little out if needed, put the cap back on tightly with the bottle slightly squeezed, pack it safely, and send it off. If the lack of outside pressure is an issue, it’ll give the bottle a way to grow a little.
Source: I live in Denver and always have something (de-) pressurize when I go to/from sea level
If i understand the issue correctly, would simply shipping them less full work?
This may seem counter-intuitive, but air in this case is the problem, so filling it less introduces more air (which is compressible) versus liquids which are generally incompressible.
But OP mentioned the bottles they use are not great so the problem they face may really be about getting better containers.
Sea level to very high elevations is not going to break any bottle. chances are what’s happening is the bottles are getting damaged during the shipping process.
I would find a way to pad the bottles with you know some something like a shipping peanuts or torn up newspapers or something of thatnature.
