McCormick Overhauls Classic Red-Cap Bottles For Lasting Freshness Inside & Out

McCormick has made some intensely fiery changes to its packaging, marking the first makeover for its famous red-capped bottles in almost 40 years.

Apart from a facelift, the globally-recognized herbs and spices brand has retooled its bottles from the inside out to maximize the freshness of the cupboard staples. It’s true that spices can be kept for ages, but they lose their zing over time from exposure to oxygen. McCormick has redesigned the containers to keep the flavor in.

Starting from the top, there’s an all-new snap cap with a ‘SnapTight’ design that audibly clicks to let shoppers know that the lid is locked in, thus prolonging the freshness of the seasonings.

Then there’s the inside of the bottles, which have undergone a new manufacturing technique to squeeze out air when the ingredients are being filled into the bottles.

With less oxygen in the shakers, herbs and spices are said to be as bright and aromatic on the day they are popped open “as the day [the bottle] was packed,” Nikki French, vice president of marketing for McCormick, tells CNN.

The lids are also now stamped with the product names and best-by dates to quicken the time taken to pick up the jars and go.

Aesthetically, McCormick’s bottles have adopted a modernized, transparent design to show off the new, fresher contents as freshness is a “multi-sensorial” experience, French tells the news outlet.

The seasonings might be stronger in flavor over the long haul, but they’re now lighter on their carbon footprint too. The bottles are constructed from 50% post-consumer recycled materials—including old plastic bottles and aluminum cans—which downsizes the company’s emissions by about 20%.

The first whiff of the redesign has already hit shelves in the US, with an initial rollout focused on McCormick’s most popular herbs and spices.

The new bottles are bound to spice up the relationship between brand and customer, as consumer tests saw shoppers pick the new packaging twice more than the original.

Neil Saunders, managing director of data analytics firm GlobalData, tells CNN that it’s hard to establish brand loyalty with this pantry staple, so the overhaul might help McCormick’s offerings stand out from its rivals.

French says freshness is a priority for consumers when shopping for herbs and spices. Suffice it to say, with the new bottles, the heat is on.

[via CNN and TODAY, images via McCormick & Company / PR Newswire]