Sauce in a box

What could possibly be new about tomato sauce? No, it's not another flavor. It's the package. Mr. Tidbit believes that Hunt's is the first major brand to put tomato sauce in brick packages (in addition to cans).

The advantage of being able to reseal the opened package, so you can use some now and some later, might not exist to folks who don't use lots of tomato sauce on a regular basis — especially because the only size of the brick pack is 33.5 ounces, a little more than four of what Mr. Tidbit would call the "regular" 8-ounce cans.

Without even guessing how long an opened brick pack of tomato sauce stays good in the refrigerator, he would note that in many families some part of the 25.5 ounces left from a recipe that calls for an 8-ounce can will be wasted. (Yes, you can freeze leftover tomato sauce, but good luck getting frozen tomato sauce out of a brick package.)

But for the relatively tomato-sauce-intensive families, where burning through 33.5 ounces of the stuff could happen in a fairly short time, what's the cost consideration? That depends on where you shop.

At one store, where the 8-ounce can was 73 cents (9.1 cents per ounce), and a 15-ounce can was $1.05 (7 cents per ounce), the 33.5-ounce brick pack was $2.43 (7.25 cents per ounce), only a little more than the 15-ouncer, and possibly more convenient. Families who use lots of tomato sauce at once should stick to the 29-ounce can, at that store $1.98 (6.8 cents per ounce).

At another store, where the 8-ounce can was 75 cents (9.4 cents an ounce), the 15-ounce can $1.05 (7 cents an ounce) and the 29-ouncer $1.95 (6.7 cents an ounce), the 33.5-ounce brick pack was $2.99 (8.9 cents an ounce), not a good buy for anybody.

Now what?

Mr. Tidbit has seen lots of product improvements promoted on packages: "Now more flavor." "Bigger." "Crunchier." "Creamier." But he thinks the change announced on boxes of Grape-Nuts is a first: "Now with 8g of protein." (It had been 7.)

Al Sicherman