Plastic buckets
Food grade plastic buckets are food safe so you don’t get any toxins in your food when you go to eat it later on. Some types of food grade plastic containers may have a high melting point, so check before putting them in a microwave oven or a dishwasher. Usually it will say on the package when you purchase them telling you whether or not they are heat resistant. Food grade plastic is found in bottles like for ketchup and syrup. This type of plastic is called polypropylene. Polypropylene (or PP) is also used on other containers like yogurt containers that need to be refrigerated. Any solid white (or opaque) plastic containers are made of food grade plastic if the purpose is to store food for human consumption, to prevent food contamination. If you are looking for a good example of a food grade plastic container, you can usually get them free when asking a restaurant to package your unfinished meal. The little containers they package them in are food grade. So if you wash the container, you will have one. Many food products at the grocery store uses food grade containers. For example pickles, chocolate syrup, shortening, all of these use food grade containers. It is not that hard to find these containers. Toddler meal containers are plastic food grade containers so your child can have a safer meal.
What is food grade plastic?
Food grade plastic is plastic that contains no harmful substances that may increase a risk to a human. It is of great pureness so no chemicals or dyes may be offered. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) of the US are the ones who necessitate these to prevent damage to humans. But if any chemicals or paint or any other harmful substance is put in one of these containers, the plastic is no longer considered food grade and no longer should be used for the purpose of food grade buckets.
Sizes of containers
Food storage buckets come in a bunch of different sizes. You can get a variety of smaller sizes to store away leftovers, soup, dinners, prepared frozen meals, soup or stews and lunches for work or school. You can get semi large containers to keep your fruits and vegetables crisp for days longer than usual, to store larger quantities of meals, and you can get even bigger containers to store any of these in. But not only that, you can also get buckets ideal for restaurant food storage to store or marinate large quantities of food for longer periods of time. For starters, they have 0.5 litre containers to store the smaller amounts of food, as well as different containers measured in cups, such as 1.25 cups, 4.5 cups, 8 cups, 10.8 cups, 16 cups, and 23 cup containers. Then there are some of the food grade plastic containers measured in litres, such as the 0.5 litre and 1 litre container. Also you can purchase some of these containers measured in quarts. Some of the examples of sizes of containers measured in quarts are 3.25 and 4 quart. Plastic storage containers also can be measured in ounces, such as 5.3 ounce, 6 ounce and 246.9 ounce buckets great for storing larger capacities of food. Finally, storage buckets or containers can be measured in gallons. You can buy food storage buckets that are 2.5 gallon, 4 gallon, 5 gallon, 6 gallon and 8 gallon. There are many other sizes of food storage buckets measured in these different measurements.
What can you use these for?
You can use food storage buckets or containers for many food uses. One of the things you can use food storage containers for would be to take lunches or snacks to work or school. They are the perfect size to put a sandwich in or some chopped up fruits and vegetables in. You can also pack away any amount of leftover dinner or lunch that was uneaten because you don’t want to waste it or you want to save it for a later consumption. Also, you can purchase some food grade containers that will keep fruits and vegetables crisper and fresher for days longer! Also, they are a PERFECT use in restaurants because they are good for marinating large quantities of food, ALL AT ONCE! And if you have a lot of food that needs to be frozen so it doesn’t go bad, these food grade buckets is perfect. You can get them in many different shapes so you can stack them to save space and it saves space because it allows more food to be stored in the same container.
Name brands of food storage containers
There are a few different big name brands that are recommended when purchasing food grade storage containers. This includes Ziploc containers, Cambo containers, Tupperware containers, and Rubbermaid containers. Of course, there are other brands that are trusting, but these are the most popular name brands for food storage. Also, each of these brands is very reliable. They include a wide variety of microwave safe, freezer safe, and dishwasher safe containers with many sizes to choose from. You can get some with clip lids, snap on lids, easy open lids all for your convenience! You can also choose Mylar food storage bags for long term or emergency storage.
Cost
The cost of these products basically depends on where you get them. Some retailers charge a bit higher for them where as some other grocery or super store may charge less. It also usually depends on the size and quantity that these products can hold. But these products usually range anywhere between $1 and $15 for some of the smaller ones, but anywhere in that range up to $45 for larger buckets.
Where to buy them
Food grade storage containers or buckets are very easy to find. You should be able to purchase them at any grocery or retail store (or superstore). But if you cannot find them for some reason, you can always purchase them online for a decent price with a wide variety of shapes, sizes, brands and types.
How to remove odors
Does your food storage container have an odor? Does your food grade container have stains? Are you starting to question whether or not your container is safe to store food in? Well I have some answers! If your food grade container is not dishwasher safe, there is still away to remove any stains! All you have to do is:
- Fill your kitchen sink with warm, soapy water and put in your container. Let it soak for a minute or two, and then scrub it. Remove it from the water, but do not dry it.
- Put in a teaspoon (for smaller containers, if a big container, add about 3) of baking soda, and rub it around a bit so all the edges of the container is evenly coated. Leave it to set for 5 to 10 minutes. Then, rinse.
- If you feel like it did not come as clean and sanitary as you had wished, bleach should finish up the trick. Let it sit in some bleach for 5 minutes and then do a final rinse. The smell and stains should be gone!
- If you have a larger bucket, allow it to dry in a sunny spot.
