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Another 5-gal. bucket question


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I've been concerned lately about plastics and I've been working to rid my house from as much plastic as possible, especially if it comes in contact with food, because plastic leaches chemicals into food. I know that there are food grade plastic storage buckets, but I heard that any plastic will leach toxins into your food. I've been packing most of my storage items into glass canning jars exclusively for this reason. Am I being concerned about this issue needlessly? Please inform me!

 

 

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Originally Posted By: cootie
I've been concerned lately about plastics and I've been working to rid my house from as much plastic as possible, especially if it comes in contact with food, because plastic leaches chemicals into food. I know that there are food grade plastic storage buckets, but I heard that any plastic will leach toxins into your food. I've been packing most of my storage items into glass canning jars exclusively for this reason. Am I being concerned about this issue needlessly? Please inform me!


yes, food grade plastic is safe, the glass jars are great to, but when packing a few hundred pounds of food for long term storage, you can't beat mylar bags and plastic five gal buckets. mason jars break and take up a lot of rm.
i do have 161 lbs of different pastas vac packed in mason jars because i haven't found a better way.
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I pack my mason jars right back into the cardboard cases they come in from the store, after I pack food into them. Then I stack the cases. It's been very space sufficient this way!

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I am not at all concerned about this hazard. However, if it was a real concern for me, I would try to minimize the hazard. I would think that liquids in plastic would be more prone to absorbing chemicals, simply because of the amount of the bucket that the food contacts. Any dry, I'd make use of the mylar bags. I've recently ordered mylar bags to pack a bunch of rice. It's only an extra $1 or so a bucket.

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I hope i dont get in trouble for this- I posted this in Are you ready but have really not gotten an answer so here it is again:

 

Food storage bucket baby here...

 

I would like an opinion or two..

 

OK I have 4 buckets to start with -(plan to get more in a few days) I have Mylar bags and 02 absorbers on the way. I have a chest freezer full of stuff. What I want to know is what should move to the buckets first? and what should I keep in the deep freeze as long as possible?

 

The things I plan to move to buckets are::

White Rice

Sugar

Corn Meal

Plain Flour

Self Rising Flour

Tons of assorted dry beans

 

Wheat berries -these are all bagged up in gallon bags in the deep freeze and I wonder if I should move them to a bucket or leave in freezer. Or move to the large mylar bags and them put a bunch of these sealed Mylar bags into a metal trash can?????

 

I also have 4 gamma lids and 4 regular lids.

 

Corn meal is on sale for $1.50 a 5 lb bag this week os I will be picking up much more of this. I have an up right freezer also so room is not a total problem at the moment. I do not want ot completely depend on the dep freeze incase power is a problem. I am way in the woods and when there is an area wide problem we are one of the last to get power back. But I am also in the hot-humid- buggy South sooooooo????? Suggestions???????

pleasehelpplease

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Evergreen, personally I would leave the stuff in the freezer. If the power goes out it will still be protected from bugs and mice. I don't know about the moisture problem though. Maybe vac seal some absorbers for if the power goes out so you can toss them in the freezer. I have flour, sugar, salt and some other stuff vac sealed and ready to go in food grade buckets. Just waiting on the buckets to get here. Then I have some Gamma lids for the buckets. Just my opinion of course!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Evergreen,

 

I don't know about you, but my freezer space is at a premium.

 

We do all of our long term storage in 5 gal buckets with lids - some gamma and some pry lids. We DO use mylar bags, with dessicant.

 

If done correctly, it can take a few hours, so we wait to package stuff until we have enough to make it worth while. ALSO, we put a small chunk or so (about walnut to egg size) of dry ice in the bottom of the mylar bag, pour in the item to be stored, and leave it sit for about an hour. (We got these instructions from Walton Feed).

 

As the dry ice sublimates (dissolves), the CO in the dry ice drives the O2 up and out of the item so we can safely seal the bags. It is important that you WAIT to seal the bags because we had SEVERAL pop on us and had to end up re-sealing. This is particularly important with Salt and the smaller grains - more surface area from which to drive out the O2.

 

I labeled the TOP and sides of the bucket. We then store them on a rack, behind a door, in the basement, AFTER I add them to my Master List.

 

Living in the NW, the main thing we deal with here is MOISTURE! Since we store in the basement, we make sure our buckets are up off the ground (shelf or old wood) and very STABLE!

 

I should think that living in the South that as long as things were sealed properly and rotated properly, that you would be fine....Anyone else?

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