Toxic Poly Pails

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In an earlier thread, someone mentioned using plastic buckets "from home depot." This is just a reminder for all to use only FOOD GRADE plastic buckets for your storage. If you use the kind that are for paint, they will, over time, leach carcinogenic fumes into your food. This is the whole rationale behind "food grade" plastics. If you have already used non-food grade, it probably isn't too late to switch without wasting anything. You can keep the paint buckets for innumerable other tasks (like waste disposal). USP is a good source for food grade pails. Can someone provide the link to this and other pail sources?

Extra trouble, but definitely worth it.

E.

-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), February 05, 1999

Answers

E --- this comes up repeatedly but is worth the repetition, definitely.

Though somewhat expensive, I recommend buckets from US Plastic (www.usplastics.com). Reliable and still in stock or quickly so, from last I heard. Excellent service and time's a wasting.

If still available, Contico paint buckets from Walmart ARE FDA food approved. They're a Connecticut company if you want to call them to assure yourself. Cheap as you can do.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), February 05, 1999.


How does one identify "food grade" plastic?

I have bought pre-packed food in plastic containers identified as 1,2 & 5 type plastic.

-- fly .:. (.@...), February 05, 1999.


Use mylar bags inside of your buckets. Mylar is gas impermiable (sp?) impervious (sp?) inconsiderate (?).

All of your worries should become a moot point if you use Mylar bags inside the bucket!

Or as Leo would say "No worries mate!"

Or was that Paul Hogan?

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), February 05, 1999.


I do not want to be a bother but seeing as I have "toxic" Home Depot buckets I wanted to put in my 2 cents worth. I recall reading some time ago that buckets stamped HDPE are food grade. HDPE stands for High Density Polyethylene. My Home Depot buckets are stamped HDPE. I just visted the Plastican site [http://www.plastican.com/]. They make HDPE pails. They have 5 gallon pails and they list the same stock number under their food and paint lists.

Personally, I'm satisfied that the Home Depot buckets are safe but I would definitely like to hear something more authoriative here.

-- Bob Benson (appysys@inreach.com), February 05, 1999.


Bob: I think the same thing. The pails I bought from HD look exactly like the pails ordered from a food grade supplier (they also cost the same, which is telling). However, these are white pails. I noticed tha tthe orange pails at HD had a stong plastic/chemical odor.

-- a (a@a.a), February 06, 1999.


a: Mine are the white ones. I hadn't noticed the orange ones at my particular HD. I'll swing by there tomorrow to take a look and see if I can learn anything about the orange ones. In particular, I want to see if they have the HDPE stamped on the bottom. Do they keep them in the paint department?

-- Bob Benson (appysys@inreach.com), February 06, 1999.

I had read on an earlier thread that someone called Home Depot and inquired about the white plastic buckets....they confirmed that they WERE food grade, FWIW.

Also read on the Walton Feed site that HDPE is a type of plastic, it does not mean that it is food grade.

Plastic Bucket Info From Walton Feed

-- Zoe (123@dot.com), February 06, 1999.


Big Dog:

Did you actually call up Contico and ask them if the buckets were food-grade? Reason I ask is because I did call Contico re: the buckets (Home Depot had them) and was informed that they were definitely not food-grade! The "Letica" brand buckets that H.D. used to sell were food grade (same buckets that U.S. Plastics sells), but they do not carry them any more. They switched over to Contico a month or so ago. Here's where it gets weird...

Home Depot dropped the food-grade buckets exactly a week after their availability at H.D. was mentioned on a long discussion on Gary North's Food Preservation forum. I managed to pick up a dozen with lids on a Tuesday, and when I returned for a couple more that Friday, the stock had been replaced with the Contico buckets and lids. I asked the manager if they were going to get any more of the Letica brand in, and he said that his store was told to return all the Letica's when they received the new shipment of Contico's.

Coincidence?

-- Why2K? (who@knows.com), February 06, 1999.


Just got this in the mail. Source for storage containers,plastics etc. FDA approved, so I assume that means they are food storage grade. Consolidated Plastics Co, located in Ohio, 1-800-362-1000, FAX 330-425-3333 Read earlier people looking for sources. Take care.

-- freeman (freeman@cali.com), January 28, 1999

-- Freeman (freeman@cali.com), February 06, 1999.


Just checked my white H.D. 5g buckets. The first batch is "Letica" (Michigan), the ones I picked up today are "Leaktite" (Leominster, MA). I'll have to give Leaktite a call next week. Point is, H.D. might have a number of suppliers, so check when you go. I recall from another forum that white might be food grade, but orange (red?) and black should be assumed not food grade.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), February 06, 1999.


I have the white HD white buckets with lids and I am not worried about contamination. I'm more worried about government confiscation, but I guess when they come to confiscate my stash, I can tell them the food inside is contaminated.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 06, 1999.

I stopped by Home Depot today looking for the orange buckets that "a" mentioned. Couldn't find them. This is in the Sacramento area. My store has 5 gal and 2 gal white buckets from Argee Corp. I'll see if I can get ahold of them next week and find out about the HDPE/Food Grade issue. I did notice today that they had about twice as many buckets on display as usual. Hmmm.....

-- Bob Benson (appysys@inreach.com), February 06, 1999.

I called Argee Corp. about the RG5500 bucket from Home Depot. Argee is located in Santee Cal. They informed me that their buckets were made from 100% virgin plastics and that they are FDA approved FOOD GRADE! As a test I stored some wheat in one of their buckets and after 2 weeks the wheat smelled fine. I wish I had something in writing. For what this is worth????Tman...

-- Tman (Tman@food.com), February 07, 1999.

Why2K: That's weird, because I did ask several months ago. However, we didn't actually get any and are using USPlastics stuff.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), February 07, 1999.

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