Food grade hype?

[fhk]

So, this is my first post. I quit brewing extract about 15 years ago because of the hassles with bottling and all the great beer coming on the market. When I started in high school there wasn't any beer worth drinking although we made do. I started out brewing with blue ribbon malt extract and cane sugar, that was a long time ago!
I have recently been gathering equipment to all-grain brew. I am wondering about the "food grade" labeling. I just ordered 100 feet of 3/8 vinyl tubing on ebay (new) made by "motors and armatures" company. I got some buckets from home depot for sterilizing (not fermenting) that look great.
Does "food grade" really mean anything when it comes to plastics? Should I not use these items in my brewing?
Look forward to participating!

 

[MrHadack]

From what I understand, food grade plastic does not contain dyes and other chemicals that are harmful to humans. This is important because alcohol can cause various compounds in certain types of plastic to leach out into the beer stored inside of it. Food grade plastic, like brew buckets, mitigate this danger.

So I am not sure Home Depot buckets would be a good choice since the chemicals in sanitizers might cause some of the dyes and chemicals from the plastic to leach into solution. I don't think it could harm anything that much in this case since it wouldn't have direct contact with your beer. I will note that Home Depot does sell clear vinyl tubing really cheaply, and it is typically food-grade.

 

[bobeer]

Lowes sells cheap food grade buckets that are perfect for sanitizing. I would totally go the extra mile to get food grade everything because it will affect your final product and the longevity of your equipment.

 

[unionrdr]

And food grade plastics are marked with that arrow triangle thing with a "1" or "2" inside it. "2" being the safer of the two grades. The tubing from homer cheapo or blowe's is fine. That's where I get mine. Besides the lever bucket lid openers & all that sort of thing.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Check out the radio podcasts on http://www.basicbrewing.com/

They've recently done a few episodes with a toxicologist and have answered a lot of questions about materials and various chemicals related to home brewing.

 

[fhk]

Good info! I checked my orange home depot buckets, they have the triangle 2 designation. Maybe good for pumpkin beer.

 

[unionrdr]

Bad thing is,the orange homer cheapo buckets are only 5 gallons. No head space...

 

[ChuckO]

And food grade plastics are marked with that arrow triangle thing with a "1" or "2" inside it. "2" being the safer of the two grades. The tubing from homer cheapo or blowe's is fine. That's where I get mine. Besides the lever bucket lid openers & all that sort of thing.

Most food grade plastics are recycle code 1 or 2, that doesn't mean that all recycle code 1 or 2 plastics are food grade. Quite a few colored plastics that may leach harmful chemicals can be recycled as 1 or 2.

The recycle code only indicates which like materials may be combined when reprocessing the materials, it has nothing to do with the original use of the material.

 

[unionrdr]

And here we were all led to believe the 1 or 2 in the triangle denoted which are safe to use for brewing/food apps. My orange homer cheapo bucket has seen so much PBW,Starsan & water that I don't think it's much of a problem anymore.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

I smoke, sit in traffic with my windows down, and eat bacon by the pound. Sometimes all at once.


Food Grade has become a myth to me...

 

[GrogNerd]

I smoke, sit in traffic with my windows down, and eat bacon by the pound. Sometimes all at once.


Food Grade has become a myth to me...

I order extra MSG on my shrimp fried rice


also, an observation: in Fairfax County, VA, there sure are a lot of Chinese restaurants located in close proximity to cat hospitals.

just sayin'

 

[ChuckO]

And here we were all led to believe the 1 or 2 in the triangle denoted which are safe to use for brewing/food apps. My orange homer cheapo bucket has seen so much PBW,Starsan & water that I don't think it's much of a problem anymore.

It probably isn't a problem, it is that you don't know what the coloring additives are. I was just trying to say that the recycle code doesn't automatically guarantee food safety. I also use the orange Homer buckets around the brewery.

 

[unionrdr]

Ah,OK...

 

[Puddlethumper]

Check out the radio podcasts on http://www.basicbrewing.com/

They've recently done a few episodes with a toxicologist and have answered a lot of questions about materials and various chemicals related to home brewing.

Checked the link and couldn't find anything about buckets. Is there more to that url that will get us closer?

 

[j1n]

I order extra MSG on my shrimp fried rice


also, an observation: in Fairfax County, VA, there sure are a lot of Chinese restaurants located in close proximity to cat hospitals.

just sayin'

The Pu$$y tastes good. nom sayin

 

[ph0ngwh0ng]

I smoke, sit in traffic with my windows down, and eat bacon by the pound. Sometimes all at once.


Food Grade has become a myth to me...

That's my new quote in my sig!!

 

[Puddlethumper]

I would be very interested to learn of any scientifically credible information on this topic. The only thing that seems to keep coming up is different release agents used when molding them. These, one might presume, would be gone after the first wash in PBW. There does seem to be a vague uneasiness with the "potential" effects of the dyes used. But again I've seen no credible information to indicate this is anything more than a boogeyman to those who don't trust science.

One excellent point in the argument to stick to the white buckets for foodstuffs is that you have an easy way to keep track of what has or has not been stored in them. If we always use the white buckets for our foodstuffs we can be confident that it never had anything in it that wasn't food. That, and the fact that you can only get 6 gal. buckets in white food grade, are sufficient reasons to keep me using them for my beer. Homer buckets are for storing used oil, brick mortar, tools, etc.

 

[Clonefan94]

Check out the radio podcasts on http://www.basicbrewing.com/

They've recently done a few episodes with a toxicologist and have answered a lot of questions about materials and various chemicals related to home brewing.

This should be a must for everyone who has any questions about "Food Grade" brewing equipment. I believe one of the things the toxicologist said towards the end of it was along the lines of, "Seems no matter what, the most toxic thing in any beer we tested was still the ethanol."

 

[unionrdr]

Lolz...oh darn...

 

[Clonefan94]

Checked the link and couldn't find anything about buckets. Is there more to that url that will get us closer?

Click on the podcasts link and look for these

November 14, 2013 - Homebrew Toxicology

December 12, 2013 - Homebrew Toxicology Pt. 2

February 27, 2014 - Homebrew Toxicology Pt. 3

You have to listen to them to get the direct answers. Basically, what he said was after testing, there was no detectable traces in the beer of anything from the plastics.

 

[GrogNerd]

I order extra MSG on my shrimp fried rice


also, an observation: in Fairfax County, VA, there sure are a lot of Chinese restaurants located in close proximity to cat hospitals.

just sayin'

The Pu$$y tastes good. nom sayin

can't shape cat meat and disguise it as shrimp

 

[Puddlethumper]

Basically, what he said was after testing, there was no detectable traces in the beer of anything from the plastics.

That is exactly what I suspected. Thanks!

 

[AlCophile]

You might look at the McMaster-Carr site, under Tygon tubing; several types, incl'g. beverage. They offer several pre-cut lengths, they have no min. order and they sell to the public.