Cheap Food Grade Buckets!

I picked up a 3 gallon and 5 gallon food grade bucket with wire handle & lid from Walmart at their bakery. The bucket is used for their frosting.

Cost was $1 each for the bucket and lid. Sweet deal.

I'm using mine to hold milled grains till I dough in since I can snap on the lid.

Is that a product they sell all the time? Or is it more like snagging a couple milk crates from behind the store? =)

I used to give them away when I managed a burger joint. Pickles come in them. Takes some work to get the pickle smell out of them, but I had a pile of them stacked up at my house. I used them for everything.

$1 ain't bad though...Better than the $6 home depot charges.

My LHBS is a wine making on premises place too so I get the 23L buckets that juice comes in for free. Pretty sweet deal, they seal up nicely and the lids have gaskets. Too small to ferment in but they definitely store grains well!

warped04 said:

Better than the $6 home depot charges.

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Are the ones at Home Depot food-grade plastic?

Damn good idea EdWort! I am in need of some good food grade buckets. Probably better to use the ones that came with frosting. Sugar sweet baby!

talleymonster said:

Is that a product they sell all the time? Or is it more like snagging a couple milk crates from behind the store? =)

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I was at a WallyWorld in Arkansas last week (making the daily run from Boy Scout Summer Camp) when I saw the buckets some lady had in her cart behind me in the checkout line. I saw the price of $1 tagged on them and I asked her if there were any left. I headed over and asked and they came up with two cause I asked for buckets with the wire bail handle. Major score as they have lids and the lids have gaskets. Fricking Home Depot orange buckets are NOT food grade as far as I know and cost 4 times as much and do NOT come with a lid.

talleymonster said:

Are the ones at Home Depot food-grade plastic?

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Don't think so

The Home Depot buckets are made of HDPE, same as the buckets you can get at your LHBS. They might not be certified food grade, but they're the same plastic.

Buford said:

The Home Depot buckets are made of HDPE, same as the buckets you can get at your LHBS. They might not be certified food grade, but they're the same plastic.

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I'm with Buford on this one. HDPE is HDPE where does this alledged "food grade" certification come from?

If someone knows what other markings other than HDPE to look for please post it. Otherwise I'd have to say that the "food grade" bucket is just someone trying to mark up a plastic bucket to get a higher price from a person that doesn't know any better.

abracadabra said:

I'm with Buford on this one. HDPE is HDPE where does this alledged "food grade" certification come from?

If someone knows what other markings other than HDPE to look for please post it. Otherwise I'd have to say that the "food grade" bucket is just someone trying to mark up a plastic bucket to get a higher price from a person that doesn't know any better.

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A quick google search of 'Food Grade Plastic' will be very informative. 'Food Grade' is an FDA certification that means that there is nothing harmful that will leach into your food (covers all additives and dyes). HDPE is not a guarantee of 'food grade'. There could still be harmful dyes and additives.

abracadabra said:

I'm with Buford on this one. HDPE is HDPE where does this alledged "food grade" certification come from?

If someone knows what other markings other than HDPE to look for please post it. Otherwise I'd have to say that the "food grade" bucket is just someone trying to mark up a plastic bucket to get a higher price from a person that doesn't know any better.

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You are correct, ther's not much difference. However, to get the "Food Grade" rating, the material has to be labratory tested for safety, and the manufacturer has to pay for that testing (could be many thousands of dollars). Hence the higher cost. All HDPE should be safe, except that doesn't take into account the colorant they use, which in the case of Home Depot, has probably not been tested for its effects on humans. I wouldn't worry about it too much though.

Off to work.

I've used the white buckets from Home Depot before...no problems I could see.

They were deffinatly more expensive that $1 though...

Good score!

jowens said:

A quick google search of 'Food Grade Plastic' will be very informative. 'Food Grade' is an FDA certification that means that there is nothing harmful that will leach into your food (covers all additives and dyes). HDPE is not a guarantee of 'food grade'. There could still be harmful dyes and additives.

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I could not find anything on the FDA's web site that would lead to a clarification.

As far as the Dyes are concerned I would certainly reframe from using anything other that white in the case of HDPE. Just because the FDA says a dye is safe does not mean that it is. It just means that they don't have conclusive proof that it is not safe.

Google searches have contradictory info. One page says recycled plastic can not be used yet the FDA's site shows NOL ( no objection letters) allowing recycled products to be used. One site says ask the Mfg.

One site said using buckets that were previously used to store oil, fats or grease or products that contain them might cause problems. Or that certain chemicals previously stored in the container might be bad. That seems like common sense to me. I'm not going to use a HDPE container that was a paint bucket first or one that was used to store rat poision, hopefully nobody would be that foolish.

I've been looking around for buckets recently as well. Got some ex-pickle buckets from a fast food type burger joint but after two weeks and a lot of scrubbing and oxyclean, they still smell bad enough that I would'nt use them.

Finally, I broke down and went to ACE. They had the white 5 gal HDPE buckets for $3.99 and lids w/ gasket for $0.99 (IIRC). All of the larger hardware type stores (Home Depot, Menards, ect.) only had colored ones which I was hesitant to use. Plus they were about $1-2 more than at ACE and the lids did not have the gasket.

Throughout all of the searching, I checked each and every different bucket I saw for some type of "food grade" label or stamp and not a one had any such designation. In other words, the pickle buckets look exactly the same as the ACE ones and have the exact same markings on the bottom save for the manufacturer's stamp.

I guess the only other way to know for sure would be to call the manufacturer.

just my $0.02

Find any company that makes food products and they've probably got a ton. My company dumps/recycles 100's of these a week, mostly 5 and 6 gallon buckets. We fill 18 wheelers full with pallets of the used buckets.

We get our eggs, fruits, and various other items in the buckets. Some are more nasty than others.

Of all the used food buckets, the ones that were filled with frosting are the sweetest.

EdWort said:

I picked up a 3 gallon and 5 gallon food grade bucket with wire handle & lid from Walmart at their bakery. The bucket is used for their frosting.

Cost was $1 each for the bucket and lid. Sweet deal.

I'm using mine to hold milled grains till I dough in since I can snap on the lid.

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I'm intentionally reviving a 2 year old dead thread cause it was a damned-great idea! Thanks a lot edWort!! I just got back from HEB with a free 3 gallon bucket. The lady said people go in there all the time asking for them and they always happily give them away. I'll definitely be stopping in there from time to time, gonna check out walmart tomorrow.

Just got a free 3.5 gal bucket from King Sooper's for nada. Have a small hefe batch going in it right now. Also, a word to the wise, if you ask for frosting buckets, occasionally they even come with frosting. Picked up half a tupperware of chocolate while I was cleaning it out.

Madtown Brew said:

Finally, I broke down and went to ACE. They had the white 5 gal HDPE buckets for $3.99 and lids w/ gasket for $0.99 (IIRC). All of the larger hardware type stores (Home Depot, Menards, ect.) only had colored ones which I was hesitant to use. Plus they were about $1-2 more than at ACE and the lids did not have the gasket.
just my $0.02

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Uh, nearly all HDPE has dyes. They have to dye it white to get it that nice, shiny white. For some reason, people think white = clean and natural and no dyes; usually white dyes are the hardest to make, and you have to use the nastier chemicals to get a nice, clean white look.

I believe that milk jugs are made from un-dyed HDPE. So, unless your bucket is that kinda dingy see-through color that you would get from a thick looking milk jug, then it has been dyed somehow.

At least HDPE starts out off-white/opaque, so they don't need to add too much coloring to get it stark white. But then again, you don't have to add too much coloring to get it any color in that case...

Maybe i won't complain next time SWMBO asks me to go to the grocery with her Want to start bulk grain buying and free buckets are way better than expensive ones!

I'm intentionally reviving a 2 year old dead thread cause it was a damned-great idea! Thanks a lot edWort!! I just got back from HEB with a free 3 gallon bucket. The lady said people go in there all the time asking for them and they always happily give them away. I'll definitely be stopping in there from time to time, gonna check out walmart tomorrow.

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Thanks, Pizzaman. I'm also from SATX, and I'm going to be visiting the local HEB.

I came onto this site & thread because I was trying to figure out if the Home Depot Orange buckets (HDPE) were OK for food. They're only $2.34 now, plus another buck for a lid, which is a good price for new. I'd use mylar bags for food, so I'm not too concerned about the dye, and I wouldn't store any food where it gets hot, so I'd be less worried about leeching of the dye anyway.

However, free is better...more money for mylar and food, among many other necessities.

My witbier is fermenting in this 7gal bucket from USPlastics.com

6 & 7 Gallon Buckets - US Plastic Corporation

If you ever order from US Plastics, if you spend like $25 your shipping gets cut in half. 4x 7gal buckets is $35.50 shipped here to PA, where 3x 7gal buckets is $32.59 shipped, so the 4th bucket makes my bill only $2.91 more than the 3 bucket bill.

3 orders with them and no problems at all.

HDPE is what all buckets are made of - true. If I recall correctly it stands for high density poly ethylene.

I think the food grade may come in for the level of Bisphenol A (BPA). This is nasty stuff and it is a chemical building block that is used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy. It helps the plastic have more toughness and durablity, although it is generally used as it is a cheap option. It is used a lot in the manufacture of epoxy resins and for paint. It leaches out especially when the plastic is heated.

It causes brain damage, but apparently, that is more of a problem for children than it is for adults. Still, the effects are cumulative. I mean after each batch of hot wort in a bucket that has BPA, a little more leaches out each time and your body will retain it.

So try and get buckets and plastic in general that is BPA free. I bought all new food containers for the sake of my young son.

2 years later, good reminder of available buckets...

Food grade also means that recycled plastics are not used, as what nasty stuff was used in the original plastic is unknown.