Food pails have strong smell
 

My five gallon pails have a strong plastic smell. They don't smell if the lid has been off, but if I put them on for a while and then open them they smell pretty strong like chemical/plastic. They are food grade so i'm not worried about them being safe, but I am worried that they might make the food taste off after a while, especially the rice. Does anyone know if its normal for them to smell, and will it have any effect on the taste of the food? I am not going to use mylar bags in these because I plan on rotating this food out within several years, on the other hand I will go ahead and use mylar if this smell will leach into the food..

Re: Food pails have strong smell
 

Really depends on the maker, the pails I bought from usplastics have virtually no smell, still I store the new ones without the lids on them so these smells will dissipate somewhat.

Re: Food pails have strong smell
 

Maybe you could sprinkle a fair amount of Baking Soda in each and close the lid for a day or two. It may absorb the smell...

Re: Food pails have strong smell
 

The smell is a result of off-gassing and VOC's due to the manufacturing process. Closing them up will only concentrate that smell. Let them air out for a while, it will help.

Plastic food pails are LDPE, low density poly ethylene. These are made from Butane, Polyehtylene glycol and a few other misc ingredients (softeners, coloring, etc) depending on the mix (been a while since I have been to poly plants, thank goodness).

The polyethylene glycol smells a little like dead fish in it's raw form. A little useless trivia for ya.

Re: Food pails have strong smell
 

Normal for new plastics to give off various vapours soon after manufacturing, wash them with water and detergent, rinse them out a few times with clean water and dry them gently.

This is one of the things that contributes to "new car smell", it's the smell of various solvents being outgassed by plastics and the glues used in manufacture. Older cars with vinyls etc
would give off gases for years in the hot sun...

The food storage containers I have stink to high heaven when I first buy them, a quick rinse of detergent and water and the smell disappears.

Re: Food pails have strong smell
 

Have you tried closing them back up for a while and seeing if you can smell it again? I rinsed mine out with water but didn't want to wash them with soap because I was afraid of the soap residue. They didn't have any smell after I rinsed them, but I put the gamma seals on and the next morning when I opened them they stunk again. Perhaps some soap would have helped.

Has anyone ever noticed this smell gettting into there food?

Re: Food pails have strong smell
 

Smell gets worse if you close the lid. Rinsing with detergent is fine, you just have to make sure you rinse it out thoroughly later (until no bubbles form) with water.

The smell does kind of permeate the food. It's not going to kill you or anything, but it isn't pleasant, and is easily gotten rid of by the steps above.