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Square boxes for round pizzas -

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a round box for a round pizza? Maybe, but it’s simpler, cheaper, and easier to ship and store single cardboard pieces that are then folded into boxes.

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Cereal in a bag inside a box -

The reason for this is simple; there was no way companies could print on paper wax bags in the 1920s, so they started to use cardboard boxes instead to stamp their brand.

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Tabasco sauce in small bottles -

Tabasco sauce does come in small bottles, but do you know why? When the sauce was invented by Edmund McIlhenny in 1868, it was originally sold in small cologne bottles.

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Potato chip bags -

When was the last time you opened a bag of potato chips and it was completely full? The answer is likely never. This is because part of the bag is filled with air, or nitrogen, in this case.

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Potato chip bags -

The nitrogen not only helps the chips stay fresh, it also cushions them, preventing the chips from being crushed by the time they reach you.

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Potato chip bags -

This nitrogen, known as “slack fill,” actually makes out about 43% of chip bags. Some brands push this number up slightly sometimes, where nearly half of the bag is filled with nitrogen.

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Potato chip bags -

Air-to-chip ratios vary across the snack industry. Some with the highest ratio in the US include Cheetos and Ruffles, while Fritos and Tostitos have lower ratios.

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Meat pads -

You have probably noticed that packaged meat and fish are placed on a paper pad. In fact, it’s not uncommon for these to end up in the frying pan! But why is there a white paper beneath the meat? The answer is: for safety.

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Meat pads -

They absorb any leakage from meat, but their function goes beyond fluid absorption. When meat juice leaks and stagnates, it becomes a breeding ground for bacteria, so absorbing it actually plays a key role in safety.

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Meat pads -

While these should never be ingested (for obvious reasons!), if you were to eat a small portion of it by accident, your body would not digest it, and pass it through.

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Beer in dark bottles -

You may never have questioned why most beer is stored in dark glass bottles, but there is a very good reason for it. It’s to avoid it tasting (and smelling) bad.

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Beer in dark bottles -

Dark bottles actually help preserve the taste of the beer. When the hops in beer are subject to light exposure, they undergo a chemical reaction that alters the taste and smell of the beer. This photo-oxidation reaction is known as "skunking."

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Beer in dark bottles -

Skunking is a reference to the foul smell of skunks, so you get an idea of what the dark glass is saving you from!

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Beer in cans are not much better -

But don’t think you’ll be safe in exposing your canned beer to sunlight for a long time without its taste being affected. Cans go through a similar process, called thermal aging.

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2-liter soda bottles -

It may feel like 2-liter soda bottles have always been around, but this is not the case. Pepsi was the first one to introduce the 2-liter plastic bottle. But why?

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2-liter soda bottles -

Coca-Cola and its iconic glass bottle were dominating the market in the 1970s, so Pepsi needed to do something about it. The solution was to offer more quantity at better value, so they came up with the first 2-liter soda bottle ever.

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2-liter soda bottles -

Even if you don’t live in a country that uses the metric system, you will likely find 2-liter bottles. This is because Pepsi was a global company and wanted these to be shipped (and make sense to consumers) worldwide.

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Dog food in thick bags -

There are a few reasons why dog food is packaged in thick bags. This is to protect it from sunlight and air, which spoil the food, and also to keep it safe from pests and bugs.

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Angostura bitters labels -

Have you ever wondered why Angostura bitters have such large labels? Well, the reason dates back to the 1870s, when the two brothers who owned the company decided to design a new bottle and label.

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Angostura bitters labels -

However, they didn’t consult with each other about the dimensions of either, ending up with a label that was just too big for the bottle. They decided to keep it, and to this day, it’s an instantly identifiable trait of their brand.

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A dozen eggs -

Have you ever wondered why eggs are sold by the dozen? Well, this goes back to colonial times, when the British used the shilling as currency. A shilling was 12 pence.

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A dozen eggs -

One egg used to cost one penny each, so 12 eggs would be conveniently sold by farmers for one shilling.

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A dozen eggs -

America eventually became independent, but the British egg counting formula remained, and is still used to this day.

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Bacon in vacuum -

You won’t find bacon packaged in any other way than in vacuum plastic packages, which are, quite frankly, a nightmare to open. But that’s not all. Have you tried re-sealing them? That’s an impossible task.

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Bacon in vacuum -

Bacon is vacuum-sealed to increase its shelf life and to make it easier to ship. Resealable packaging is still but a dream for bacon lovers. 

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Dough in tubes -

Pillsbury packs their dough in air-tight “breakable” cardboard tubes. To open one of these, you have to press an area with a spoon…or bash it against the kitchen countertop so it breaks and pops open. But why tubes?

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Dough in tubes -

Well, there were basically three reasons for tubes: they were air-tight, stackable, and also easy to ship across the US. The first versions were a nightmare to open, so Pillsbury hired inventors to design the new versions.

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The quantities in hot dog and bun packages don’t match -

If you have ever gone shopping for hot dogs and buns, you’ve probably noticed that hot dogs are often sold in packs of 10, and buns in packs of 8.

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The quantities in hot dog and bun packages don’t match -

The reason is that hot dogs are sold by weight (pound), and the buns are sold by the size of pans used to bake them in (usually clusters of four).

Sources: (Ranker) (Weird History Food) (CNN) (MyRecipes) (Today) (Marketplace) (Taste of Home) 

See also: How to avoid food poisoning

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