Seal the Deal: Ball Mason’s Recipe for Food Preservation

Kevin Thompson, Brand Director at Newell Brands, shares the science behind Ball Mason’s strongest seal. Learn how time-tested craftsmanship and R&D come together to lead the way in food preservation. 🔒🫙

Featured on Tomorrow's World Today: 

• Preserving Perfection - Season 9 Episode 2

Learn more about this topic: 

• A Guide To Canning and Preserving Food With Mason Jars
• Five Creative Ways to Use Mason Jars Outside of Canning

Transcript

Steven: 0:01

Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast. We sit down with experts, world changing innovators, creators, and makers to explore how they're taking action to make tomorrow's world a better place for technology, science, innovation, sustainability, the arts, and more. On this episode, host George Davison, who is also the host of the TV series Tomorrow's World Today, sits down with Kevin Thompson, brand director at Newell Brands. Kevin shares the rich history and enduring innovation behind ball mason jars, emphasizing their proprietary sealing technology that ensures superior food preservation. He also highlights how evolving consumer needs continue to shape the brand today and in Tomorrow's World.

George: 0:46

Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of Tomorrow's World Today. And today I have Kevin Thompson here. He is a brand director for Ballmason Corporation, the Ballmason jar company, which is also a part of Newell Brands. Welcome to our show.

Kevin: 1:03

Thank you.

George: 1:04

So I was hoping you could tell us a little bit about the history of Ballmason.

Kevin: 1:08

Yes, I can definitely do that. And it goes all the way back to 1884. Interestingly enough, that's about 141 years ago now, because we just celebrated our 140th anniversary last year. But it all comes down to the Ball brothers, who sort of discovered this whole mason jar element, which was going around at that time. And this was in New York. And they decided they wanted to produce these. mason jars, which helped people preserve their produce and extend the shelf life of the food and the crops that came in on an annual basis. And it really took off. They moved that business to Indiana, actually Muncie, Indiana. And we actually, that facility that they developed there is still in production today. It still runs product today. And they constantly constantly innovated around preservation. And the biggest innovation that came about from that is just the sealing technology that our ball mason jars have. That allows us to really be best in class and just be the number one trusted brand when it comes to food preservation and just mason jars in general.

George: 2:29

You know, I remember when I was younger and there were glass jars. They had two-piece lids. And then there was a rubber... like independent gasket at the time. I remember those back in the day and then they disappeared. And now we have a gasket that's actually like integrated into the two piece lid.

Kevin: 2:49

Yes.

George: 2:49

This is some of the technology that you're referring to, right?

Kevin: 2:52

Yes.

George: 2:53

So earlier we were chatting and you referred to it as the strongest seal. I thought that's a great terminology, you know, so can you talk a little bit about it?

Kevin: 3:02

Yeah. And so there's this proprietary sealing technology that was developed by And with that, and with the two-piece lid, it allows us to really up the ante and improve quality when it comes to food preservation, when it comes to just preserving your food for long periods of time. And our quality standards at Ball are quite high. Our R&D team, they test our products all the time. They test everything in the marketplace. And what we have come to realize realize and what we know to be true is that we have the strongest sealing mason jars and you know this allows our products and our consumers and just the canning community to really trust in us you know and believe and know that you know their products will be shelf stable

George: 3:54

yeah

Kevin: 3:54

for as long as they sit in our mason jars

George: 3:57

very nice so the problem is you know you get your whole foods you put them in there and then you want them to last as long as humanly possible right so having a great seal is a part of the process.

Kevin: 4:10

Yes.

George: 4:10

So, you know, just kind of run me up to speed a little bit on, you know, if I was inside the R&D department, right, and somebody said, well, is there any way to make a better seal, even better than the really good seal that we have now? That would be part one of it, probably. And maybe they got some ideas. But then you have to scale that. You guys sell a lot of these jars. How many jars are we talking a year? Oh,

Kevin: 4:35

my goodness. I It's hard to put a number around that, but it's in the hundreds of millions of jars.

George: 4:43

So scaling is important. So coming up with an idea is one thing, figuring out how to make it scale, and then you need to be able to bring it to market and tell the story of it.

Kevin: 4:53

Yes.

George: 4:53

And that's why I think earlier you kind of captured my imagination. I love that strongest seal idea because it's a simple, memorable thing. It's like a noble cause. How do I shoot for a noble cause that It'll help my end user. And if I have the strongest seal, I know their food is safe and it'll be there when they need it. Is that kind of how the mindset is at your place?

Kevin: 5:16

Definitely that's how the mindset is. I think a lot of us that come to work here and just have joined this business, it's been really about, and you could say this about a lot of businesses, but I mean, we truly believe it. It's about delivering solutions for our consumer, meeting those unmet needs. and delivering quality products for the consumer that they can trust and believe it. And you asked about the day in the life of R&D and the work that they do. They're constantly running tests to not only ensure that our product is the best and we continue to evolve and enhance our mason jars and just the overall process of food preservation, but they work to test our recipes because that is a big part of what we do. We have a consistent and constant dialogue with the canning community where we provide guidance and we provide tons of recipes that are tested by our team. We don't provide a recipe that is not tested. And from that process, once you follow the recipe and you follow it correctly, you'll be fine with the product that comes out of it. And we stand by that. And we live by that. And it's all about just providing good product, good quality product, so that our consumers can extend the shelf life of their produce. They can have a stable food supply moving

George: 6:49

forward. Nice. Yeah, that's a good story. I mean, back in the day, it's a glass jar with a lid, right? But now, I guess somebody had the idea of, hey, let's stretch ourselves out into the recipes and into the community that's doing this kind of thing. Give them these time tested proven recipes and you know that's that's a really good story so I don't know who came up with that idea over there but that was a good one so let's let's talk a little bit more I mean about good ideas I mean can you project a little bit about the future I mean what are you guys working on right now that's kind of like secret but about the kind of

Kevin: 7:27

well I think I think there are different ways for us to continue to delight our consumers I would say because one thing that's happened with, and this happened as part of COVID, is that people sort of discovered or even rediscovered preservation and mason jars. And it became a, what we saw was a big spike in just our sales, a big spike in just the conversation around how to preserve food, how to live a healthier lifestyle, what are the right ingredients for various recipes or just if I want to promote a specific lifestyle and I want to teach my kids about these things, what is the right guidance for that? So there's been a lot of that type of conversation. Also, with our products, we've also found that people are just using them around the home for everything, not just food preservation. They're using them as drinkware. They're using them for crafting with their kids. They're using them for just home decor and all these different things. And we've really noticed this. And so what we've done over the years is we've provided more variety within our jars so that our consumers and our community can use our jars however they see fit because there's just so much creativity out there and just there's a lot of just unique usage of our products. And so we want to continue to promote that and continue to be there for our community.

George: 9:04

Yeah, it sounds good. I mean, so you've diversified the line a little bit, right? And you're welcoming other, actually, those are some other bigger categories that you're really playing in. Crafting's a big category. So, you know, that's a pretty good business strategy. I like that one. There have been other, you know, Ball's kind of done things like that in the past, too. When you guys, I was reading on some of the history, and whenever the Ball brothers were still around, they wanted to scale the glass manufacturing process. They were actually the first ones in the US to scale something so big that they could bring the price down on the glass jar itself, which gave them a competitive advantage for a long time. So the idea of competitive advantages, innovation, technology, now you're extending out into other categories. What other things should I look forward to in the future? Let's say in the world of food preservation. Is there anything else that's going to be coming out in the world in the next decade, let's say?

Kevin: 10:06

That's a great question. I would say the best way to answer that really is as we see the trends and as we see the various things that consumers are doing with our products and the questions that they're asking, there may be opportunities that start to pop up as consumers think more and more about sustainability and as consumers think more and more about just living healthier lifestyles. And I think some of it is how we could help use our expertise to be as big a part as we can be with that dialogue and with those conversations. I also think there are opportunities for us to provide, not necessarily new and improved product, but new ways of using our product. And there may be some opportunities of that that in the future remains to be seen and more to come on that.

George: 11:11

So is there a process that you guys use in R&D? Is there an observational analysis of end users that maybe give you a feedback sensor as to what's going on out there that can ignite conversation about what we could do potentially as something new?

Kevin: 11:30

I would say there are a couple elements that we utilize. R&D has some, the R&D team has some great relationships with some of the organizations out there that promote canning. And, you know, there's definitely, there's a lot of various conferences that occur, you know, around the world. And there are universities, you know, and professors at universities that, you know, study this stuff. That our R&D team stays and has constant conversations with to make sure that, you know, we're sort of on the same page and we're thinking about things in the same way. And if, you know, if we're seeing different things, you know, we can have that conversation. I would say from also from our side of things, you know, the brand management side, we also, we have a social media presence and we, you know, we have multiple conversations with our Canon community. You know, we have a Facebook page dedicated to our Canon community, you know, where it's really about people helping each other, you know, and helping newbies to food preservation and understanding and making sure you're doing it the right way and helping them with how to follow a recipe and providing guidance of things to think about and tips and tricks and things of that nature. And so we sort of keep our ears to the ground there and we have the dialogue with that community. We also have various events where we just talk to consumers and get an understanding of what are the pain points out there? What are you guys running into that we could potentially help with moving forward? We don't ask it necessarily like that, but we try to get an understanding of where there's potential issues or potential needs out there that we could work on providing solutions. We're in the solutions business. That's what we all came into this business for. When there's an issue out there or there's a pain point, we all get together, put our heads together, and and try to work out, like, what's the solve? How can we provide a better experience for our consumers and then run with that?

George: 13:43

That's great. Well said, by the way. Thank you. So let's talk to our audience for a minute. How can they, if they wanted to do canning for the first time, what would you recommend? How do they reach out to you guys? Oh,

Kevin: 13:55

there's multiple resources out there. Obviously, there's our website. Anyone can come to our website, and there's everything on there from tips and tricks to how-tos and videos and tutorials. And what's that address? And that is ballmasonjars.com. Very easy. Ballmasonjars.com. All right. Ballmasonjars.com. We also have a Ball Blue book, which we actually launched the 38th edition of it as of last year. This book has been around essentially since the 1800s. Wow. And it has everything anyone wanted or are needed to know about food preservation or canning in general, it's in that book. And it has a ton of recipes in there that our R&D team validates and tests every single one. There's over 500 recipes in that book. And our R&D team has tested every single one of them. And so it's just great guidance. But it also provides tutorials and help with getting started when it comes to food preservation and canning. And those are just some of the resources that we provide. There's also resources by other canning organizations that are out there that we work with that that can also help consumers so there's there's a wealth of resource and information for anyone who wants to get started

George: 15:19

well there you have it that's another edition of tomorrow's world today kevin thank you for coming on the show

Kevin: 15:25

thank

George: 15:26

you for having me bye

Kevin: 15:27

everybody

Steven: 15:28

Thank you for listening to this episode of Tomorrow's World Today podcast. Join us next time as we continue to explore the worlds of inspiration, creation, innovation, and production. Discover more at TomorrowsWorldToday.com, connect with us on social media at TWT Explore, and find us wherever podcasts are available.