Might just be me, but imo I find it weird that canned goods come in 14.5 ounces instead of an even 16 ounces. Since that would just be a well rounded number and would be 1lb it just seems more rounded to me.
In: 4100
It’s volume vs weight. The cans are standard size. The density of the contents vary, so the weight can be different.
They used to be 16oz. If you look at older recipes, you’ll see them call for 16oz cans of ingredients. Slightly newer recipes call for 15oz cans and even newer ones call for 14.5oz cans. Manufacturers are shrinking the cans instead of raising prices because people would clearly rather buy less than pay more.
Food (“tin”) can sizes in the U.S. have been [standardized](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/guide/675/types-of-food-cans-and-food-can-sizes-guide.html) since the late 19th century, but the standard is arbitrary. As the 1916 book [*Canning and How to Use Canned Foods*](https://books.google.com/books?id=1OF-bFYIrUYC&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false) by A.W. and K.G. Bitting reports,
>There are certain sizes of cans that are regarded as standard but unfortunately are not based upon any unit of volume nor upon average domestic requirements. Most of them have originated in trying to make a certain number of cans out of a sheet of tin plate of a certain size, the logical alternative of making the sheet of tin plate to such size as will build cans of a certain capacity does not seem to have been considered.
These standard sizes are common in older recipes, which might call for a #3 can of beans or a #10 can of tomato sauce.
The most common can size in the U.S. is the #300, which measures 3 inches in diameter and slightly under 4½ inches tall, and which hold 15 U.S. fluid ounces or 1⅞ cups (or 15.6 Imperial fluid ounces, or 443.6 mL). *It’s important not to confuse fluid ounces, which measure volume, with ordinary (avoirdupois) ounces, which measure weight/force*. Food is mostly water, so you won’t find a tremendous amount of variation in the net weight of food you can fit in a #300 can, but it might be 14oz of one vegetable and 16.5oz of another.
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Your question depends on whether it’s measuring fluid ounces aka volume or ounces in weight. Fluid ounces measures size aka volume. 1 fl oz of water weighs 1 oz (although the US scale is off by 4%). If the package you mention describes oz, it depends on the weight if the contents. The measurement of cans in fl oz has been standardized for years with little change. The reason for the precise sizes comes down to optimizing the transport of the product.
There are formulas dedicated to optimizing the volume of a can to the amount of metal it takes to make that can. This lowers cost so that you can sell more of your product with less waste. In addition to this, you must also account for serving size. If you only use 6 oz, you only need 6oz and some products are used in the can, which means you need to optimize how the can opens. Cat food is very often eaten out of the can.
Also is considered is the fact that packaging like boxes, pallets, and trucks are standardized so certain sizes may fit more product than others. There’s a whole subset of math to this called circle packing.
Lastly, it’s much easier to display smaller numbers and much easier to calibrate to smaller numbers, so even though it might be better to make a package 14.47854743674574….fl oz, 14.5 is easier to do.
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Generally all cans are the same size, but their contents weigh differently. A can of cheese puffs and a can of cheese will weigh different amounts, for example… it all just depends on what’s in the can.
I work in the food industry and can say it’s not due to shrinkflation. It’s just tradition as someone posted. You can’t really shrink the amount of food in a can because there has to be certain range of air in the top when it’s sealed. I know because I wanted to make a 15.0 OZ product. Unfortunately we only had can sized 14.7oz and 18.0oz. I Triebe to both jam in an extra .3oz and take out 3 oz and product development explained I couldn’t for that reason. We’d have to bring in a different can as well as the equipment to fill it, would cost a pretty penny.
Canned goods are a fixed volume of food. Different foods have different densities. So given the same volume, different foods will have a different mass in the same can.
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