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5 gallon buckets- Home Depot or food grade?

28K views 50 replies 42 participants last post by  PHSINV 
#1 ·
Where does everyone get their honey processing buckets and are they food grade or simply Home Depot grade?

Us Plastics has food grade buckets but they aren't cheap.
 
#3 ·
Tuz is correct. lowes carries FG buckets. they are just a touch more expensive than the normal ones, but not prohibitively so. search their website for

Encore Plastics 5-Gallon Food Grade Plastic Bucket

Item #: 356492 | Model #: 50640

the price muight vary by location. Here it's just a bit under $4
 
#7 ·
I picked up a food-grade bucket at Lowes (for mixing syrup) ... I was surprised to see they carried them (actually they only had one in stock) and that they carried them in the PAINT department.

But we've got two piddly hives and don't expect to extract much honey this first year. A full 5-gallon bucket seems like a waste. Any recommendations for sources for smaller food-grade containers? Gallon or two-gallon ice cream containers maybe?
 
#11 ·
Any recommendations for sources for smaller food-grade containers? Gallon or two-gallon ice cream containers maybe?
Most beer and wine supply stores carry glass gallon jars.The ones here are the small neck variety like cider comes in.They are about $13.00 for case of four.Price will probably vary depending on location.
 
#12 ·
I've only got 3 hives, so I use 1 gallon buckets. I get them for free from the grocery store. The bakery there makes lots of cakes and they buy all the frosting in 1 gallon buckets. Then they trash the bucket. Just walk up to the bakery and ask.

I get my free burlap from a nearby coffee house. All the beans get shipped in burlap bags and they toss hundreds of bags per week.
 
#16 ·
Food grade is made with virgin plastic, absolutely no post consumer recycled plastic.

Most everything else has some to save on costs.

I get gallon, 2 gallon, 3.5 & 5gal all with lids for 50 cents to $2 from my local grocery store bakery.

Oh, and most of the color dye additives used are not certified food safe.
 
#22 ·
HDPE high density polyethylene, is the most common food safe plastic.
Polyethylene has a pretty good track record for chemical stability, durability, and and minimal leaching.
But it does readily absorb certAin materials....ever try to get the smell of pickles or BBQ sauce out of a reused bucket?
Artificial fragrances used in many body and cleaning products are particularly bad, and easily noticed by smelling recycled HDPE

These substances can migrate into the plastic and then leach back out into contents later, so care must be used when repurposing plastic containers.

The recycling process does nothing to scrub these contMinants from the plastic when reformed. And once you are using plastic from the post consumer waste stream, there is no control over what was in those containers getting ground up and blended with virgin plastic.....laundry soap, insecticide, drain cleaner....you get the idea

It would be quite possible to get off favors or even serious toxins by using recycled material for foodstuffs.
 
#46 ·
Ditto. Along with the conditions of manufacturing...to be food grade the release agent has to be "food grade" and the conditions that the buckets are manufactured in must be sanitary similar to a food processing area.

...then they probably laugh when they throw them in a cardboard box or shrink-wrap them on a pallet all of which most likely :scratch: isn't foodgrade. They then put them on a truck (along with other things...shovels, paint, bathroom hardware, nails, cleaning solutions, etc.,) for transporting to the BBS. Once there they unload them on an unsanitary loading dock and move them to a pesticide treated warehouse and eventually stacked "open air" for John Q Public to pick from like he's buying cantalopes. John Q Public just happened to have that new strain of influenza going around while he pawed through the buckets. Or, maybe the Bobbsy twins are playing in the aisles as their parents look over paint colors? What's more fun that putting buckets over your head and playing like monsters or somethihg? What? They both have some seriously snotty noses, but no problem...they're just playing with some buckets, hand them a hanky. Food grade??? Yeah, but... :pinch:

I get my buckets at Lowes. I'm *reasonably* sure that when those yellow "food grade" stickers are stuck on the buckets that the buckets were food grade...but I'm reasonally sure the buckets lose that "certification" or whatever you call it...pretty quickly.

Wash your new buckets (and lids) very well. Please.

:)
Ed
 
#25 ·
We were looking for funnels last week, hoping to find one that either included a screen or which could hold one, with enough capacity to filter small batches of honey. The ones in the bee catalogs seem to be for 5 gallon buckets again. The Bed Bath and Beyond had nothing suitable. The salesman suggested we try an auto parts store.

Yeah, I even have a screened funnel that would work, but with a dubious history of straining chemicals. For the reasons stated above, I'd be really reluctant to use anything from an auto parts store. Food-grade is clearly preferable, and probably should be required if you are selling honey.
 
#27 ·
I bought a stainless steel funnel with a screen for dairy use at an auction. I love it. I use it mainly for first step filtering of used vegetable oil that I use as fuel in my diesel VW Jetta (not biodiesel, SVO only). I just run it through the dishwasher to clean it. We did use it for maple syrup last week. Look up dairy funnel, its big with at least a 6 in. drain hole holds about a gallon or more.
 
#29 · (Edited)
I am getting crazed about the bucket issue. I just got some buckets free from a local bakery and some are plastic no 2 HDPE which is definitely food grade but others were no 5 which is polypropylene which may be food safe-I know they had bulk filling for cakes in them but I did not think to ask if the buckets had a plastic bag lining with the filling or if they were straight filled up. Anyone know about Polypropylene?
 
#31 ·
Polypro is a close chemical cousin of polyethylene. The monomer is just a carbon longer. It tends to be a little stiffer and so is a good choice for rigid things like buckets. It can be high purity, but the same arguments apply regarding recycled content or prior use that might leave residue.

Unlike vinyl or some other plastics, I don't think either polyethylene or polypropylene require additives such as plasticizers, and both should be available in food grade. But look into that 7 marking. It could be the liners were food grade but not the bucket itself.
 
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