The Actual Reasons Food Is Packaged The Way It Is, Ranked By The Most Logical Packaging Style

One of the most unique unpackaging experiences comes from Pillsbury and its “purposely breakable” cardboard tube: You pull the label off, then press on the pressure point until the tube bursts with a satisfying (albeit loud) “pop.”

The tube was carefully designed this way (over years) because Pillsbury wanted an airtight tube to ship its dough nationwide, but didn't want consumers to have to pry off the metal ends. So inventors designed a purposely dysfunctional tube that people could break. 

Although there's long been a debate about whether you should use a spoon to break the tube, or hit it against a counter, apparently the original patent cited the counter method as the best practice.

When you go to the beer aisle and look at the glass bottles, you'll notice most are sold in dark (often brown) bottles. 

This isn't done merely for aesthetics - brewers use this dark glass to preserve the taste of the beer. 

The reason for the container comes down to science. When the hops in beer are exposed to light, a chemical reaction occurs, creating a compound that does not taste good to humans, and has a smell similar to the odor emitted by skunks, hence the name of the process: skunking. 

So beer companies use a dark bottle to offer some protection to the liquid inside - keeping it tasty longer if it's under the sun. 

After throwing meat into your pan, have you ever accidentally tossed that little white pad in with it? And then thought, “What is this little piece of paper for anyway?” 

That absorbent pad is very important for keeping meat safe for humans to eat. It keeps the meat from sitting in liquid, which could cause more bacteria to grow in the meat. The pad also soaks up bacteria-spreading juices so they don't accidentally get on your kitchen counter or leak in your refrigerator. 

The pads are highly regulated by the FDA, which want to ensure nothing in them will be absorbed by the food you put in your body. 

Pizza is a food of many shapes - circles when whole, triangles when in slices, all packaged in a square box. But why isn't the box round to hold the circular pizza?

If you've ever folded a pizza box, you know that it is shipped flat, in one piece. Being able to ship it this way saves a lot of money and space on transporting the boxes. But it also makes it cheaper for the manufacturer to cut a single piece of cardboard without much effort. 

Then, the workers at the pizza restaurant can quickly fold the box at the right angles without worrying about folding around a curved shape. 

The thick plastic bags that dry dog food is packaged in weren't designed just to support the weight of the kibble.

The liners in dog food bags offer protection against pests and bugs, while also keeping out air and sunlight. This protective packaging keeps dry dog food fresh for many months - up to 18 months. 

So although many people tend to pour their dog food into plastic tubs or containers, it's recommended that you keep the food in the bag, which you can then put into any container. 

When it comes to buying drinks, many are sold in a variation of gallon - a gallon of milk, a half-gallon of orange juice. 

Yet bulk soda (or pop, for those in the US Midwest), is sold in a 2-liter bottle. Why the difference?

Pepsi is responsible for the discrepancy. In the ‘70s, Pepsi was struggling to compete with the massively popular Coca-Cola. The latter’s glass bottles were iconic, and Pepsi was trying to find a way to differentiate its product. 

The company discovered that Pepsi consumers were burning through soda bottles too quickly and wanted more soda at a time. So Pepsi created a larger, plastic bottle.

Because Pepsi was a global company, it made sense to make these new plastic bottles following the metric system, and the 2-liter bottle was born. 

Why didn't other beverages follow suit? Milk, in particular, is often produced locally, so using the American standard (the gallon) still made sense for US dairy consumers.