Looking for food safe liners that won't leave any platic taste

Hi there,

This is not about beer...but about fermenting pickles, so similar.

I need to find a plastic liner that will NOT leave ANY taste to the brine of the pickles, does that even exist?

I've tried HDPE 120 liters container toped with ziplocs and just lost my whole batch of Kosher pickles because they taste like plastic...Ph of my brine is 3.6

Any help much appreciated as I am a Canadian living in Thailand and you just can't get anything around here...

Cheers!

Most the posters here are pickled and they have no taste, so I can see why you decided to try this forum...... I haven't a clue what you could use. I assume a thick white or clear poly trash bag would do the trick.

Your best bet for not leaving a plastic taste is glass. Ferment in glass and store in plastic is what I do

I would imagine that nearly any plastic liner or container may contribute some taste. Generally, the softer / more maleable the plastic, the more plasticizer or VOC present. These plasticizers are what slowly out-gas and give the "plastic" taste/smell.

You could also try stonewear, such as the old crocks traditionally used to ferment foods. If you're in Thailand, I'd imagine that preserving food through fermentation/pickling is still common practice and you'd be able to find appropriate vessels. Just be wary of glazed pottery items, as certain pieces out of China can use lead in pigments or sealing glaze. Even terra-cotta may work, but it's known for absorbing a lot of moisture.

Otherwise glass is a sure-fire way to not have plastic taste. Stay away from metal and even stainless containers due to the long exposure to the low pH brine.

I actually do the opposite of joerose (post #3). Ferment sourkrout in plastic and then divide into smaller glass jars for storage.

This instructional has a few ideas on appropriate plastic liners and methods.

Thank you Maverick for the great answer!

Actually the kraut seems to work fine in plastic for some reason...just not the pickle cucs.

I really wonder why? Might be because of osmosis? The kraut looses it's juices in a few hours, but the cucumbers take about 2-3 days to "leak" out fluids because of the saline solution.

I suspect cucumbers are more influenced by the surrounding brine than kraut.

For a 10 kg of kraut I add no water, for 10 kg of cucumber I need to add 8 liters of water.

I do use stoneware in Thailand, but they can only hold about 17 kg of cucs, not enough quantitiy to hit supermarkets.