55 gal FOOD GRADE BARRELS in the TRIAD NC Area

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If you live in the Triad NC area (W-S, GSO, HP), the Pepsi Bottling plant just off I-40 on Meyer-Lee Road between W-S and K-ville has 55 gal Plastic Food Grade barrels for $5.00 each. They are unwashed. They have white ones and blue ones. I got white ones labeled Mt. Dew.

******** Whatever color you get, be sure they had Pepsi, Mt.Dew, Dr. Pepper, etc. syrup in them previously. When I was there, all the blue ones I saw had previously contained a CLEANING SOLUTION. ********

Also, be sure the barrels you get have the screw-in plugs in place.

I also got 5, 4gal containers (I plan to paint them blue, label them appropriately, and use them for kerosene). The screw-in plugs from the 55gal barrels will fit the containers with a little modification.

They also have metal drums. I don't know if they are food grade and I don't know if they are for sale.

-- (southeastern@my-deja.com), June 10, 1999

Answers

Don't know what "food-grade" entails. We've gotten 20x 55 gallon metal drums that had liquid silicon inside of plastic liners. Silicon and liners are gone, of course, and the insides shine like new. We're going to store feed grain for the chickens in some of them, most we're using for non-food items. Anyone think that eating eggs from chickens that eat grain from these barrels might be unadvisable? Also, if anyone wants a source for them in central Michigan just let me know.

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), June 10, 1999.

A salad dressing food plant has 55 gallon plastic barrels in our area.

These are food grade quality. HDPE type, 2.2mm wall thickness with the white screw on plugs.

These containers held apple cider vinager. Vinager is a natural cleaning agent. Thus, just a rise out is fine.

However, the Pepsi barrels need a complete washing. Sugar from the syrup, with any trace, can contain bacteria. Bacteria that entered the barrels affter dispensing the product out.

The salad dreesing plant also has lemon juice concentrate. This is very hard to remove due to the sugar content.

If anyone has a solution on how to remove the sugar concentrated syrup in any of these barrels, please advise us.

I just finished giving over 52 of these barrels to the families in my church. About four each.

The barrels are used for storing h2o of course.

The barrels sit on wood palettes. The palettes are on a concrete garage floor. Without the palettes, the cold floor would frezze the water and split the barrels. Just for an added saftey item, I placed square throw rugs under the palettes. This winter here in Buffalo, NY was in the -20's. Not a problem. Everything held well.

In the clear white 55 barrels we have stored K-1. This was a 1% salt solution of some sort.

-- Joe Martin (no_spam@nospam.com), June 11, 1999.


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