Why is it that black olives come in a can, but green olives come in a jar?
Black olives are cooked. Green olives are raw. Green olives and black olives start out as the same fruit, but they’re processed differently. Black olive processing includes cooking. They save themselves time and effort by cooking them directly in the can, which is something you have to do anyway with canned objects, to kill all of the bacteria that might grow inside. In the process, it breaks up a lot of the bitter compounds, which is why black olives are so sweet. Green olives are treated, but not cooked. There is a processing treatment that goes on in the jars to kill bacteria, but the temperature isn’t as high or as long as for black olives. Glass wouldn’t withstand the processing applied to black olives, so they use metal cans instead. But jars are prettier, and they get to show off the olives inside. It’s more effective marketing. Some green olive jars are “placed”, which means the olives are neatly arranged. Others are “thrown”, which is not as pretty, but less time consuming to
