Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

I posted a few days ago about purchasing square buckets for a little more than $6 apiece. I went ahead and placed the order, but then balked when the company sent me an email the next day and said that the shipping estimate was wrong and it would cost me at least double. 25% of the order will be shipping.

:36_1_25:

I am suddenly FAR more interested in acquiring second-hand food-grade barrels from restaurants and delis (a nominal charge and pickle smell is fine by me).

Can anyone provide some further clarification in the kinds of restaurants and delis to target? Certain classifications of food served? Or mom & pops v. chains?

I thank you in advance for responses--I would like to start canvassing restaurants tomorrow.

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

go to home depot they have real nice 5 gallon bucket with lids for 4 bucks they have a real good seal on the lids

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

Get food grade liners and you won't have to worry as much about first or second hand aspects of the outer bucket.

Food grade liners should be used even with top of the line, new buckets.

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

Go to ANYWHERE that serves ANY kind of food ready-to-eat, pick a time when it's not busy, and ask. They constantly get more and just end up throwing them out anyway.

Note that grocery-store delis and bakeries count here too, so you can ask if you visit the store when these counters are open as well. At the store I work at, most of the side dishes and the cake icing comes in buckets, though not all are 5-gals, some look to be smaller (maybe two-gallon).

---------

The pickle-smell issue is only with the pickle jars.
It used to be that the pickles they sold over the counter came in big glass jars--the one I have left is about 13" tall and 10" diameter in the middle.
(it isn't marked in capacity and there's no manufacturer's name, so I can't tell ya anything else about it)
Over the last year or so the pickles started coming in big plastic jars instead. You can still ask for the glass jars of course but don't be surprised if they say it's plastic now.

-end-

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

Stay away from pickle buckets.

Emergency Essentials has some of the best buckets out there.

sb

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

Asian restaurants. They buy soy sauce by the bucket.

Boy, that's also a pretty good tongue twister--say that 3 times fast!

:565:

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

I asked about the big pickle jars where I work.
They said that they can order the pickles in either giant jars or buckets, but that the jars are more expensive so they only order a jar if they need the jar for display purposes.

The icing buckets I looked at were 15 and 28lbs, dunno how many gallons that is exactly.... the bigger ones looked about 5 gals.

-end-

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

Stay away from pickle buckets! No matter how many times you try and what you use to wash them out, you'll never get rid of the aroma.

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

The problem is that mice and rats can smell food through the plastic and will chew through to get it. That is eliminated by using food grade mylar bags. So you need to use the bags no matter what kind of plastic buckets you use.

I know three main sources of buckets: burger stands (mostly pickles), bakery sections in grocery stores (frosting), and construction workers (paint and spackle). But if you need more than a few, your most reliable source is Home Depot.

But why does it have to be buckets? Home Depot sells a very nice stackable box for about the same price as a bucket, three times the capacity, handles, and much nicer for reuse after the food is used.

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

There have been some horrible cautionary tales on here about pickle buckets in the past. People wasting a lot of time and effort using them only to have food tainted with the flavour of pickles.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Even if the cost outlay is a little more at the outset.

Plastic buckets are permeable. Those which have had pickles in them will have taken on the pickles in the plastic.

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

Every doughnut store in the country has them. They hold frosting. 3.5 gallon and 5 gallon depending. I purchased mine for .50 each. You may get some for free if you drive around the backside of store and look in the dumpster.

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

Found a source for those screw on 5 gallon bucket lids.

Not cheap but makes it a lot easier to access your food and reseal.

Good idea to purchase a small bottle of Nitrogen as well to get the oxygen out.

http://www.pyrosupplies.com/shop/pag...3e11f631e.html

http://www.pyrosupplies.com/shop_con...llon-screw.jpg

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

Strawman'

These lids are also listed under the sticky-Survival Preps Links: Where to get stuff!! under "buckets"

Freckleface has these on sale right now $68/dozen plus shipping at:

Gamma Seal Lids: http://freckleface.com/shopsite_sc/s...ammaseals.html

sb

PS please list this new source under the sticky so we can keep track of it. Not quite sure what happened to my original post but I think this will fix it. thankx sb

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

If you live near any major city, I strongly suggest you check into buying them from any local suppliers/manufacturers. Every big city has food manufacturers who buy these containers by the truckload, and so there's container manufacturers all over the USA.

For example--I am looking at getting some plastic drums for water storage, and for various reasons I decided on the 15-gal ones. I wanted new ones to make sure the water wouldn't taste like soy sauce, and I decided I wanted at least four drums, and maybe as many as six, depending on the cost. (I live alone so I think 60-90 gals is a pretty decent amount to stash for one person)

The typical prices I'm finding online are around $55 each ($40 + $15 shipping) and no minimum qty.

The local place I'm talking to wants $27 each F.O.B. (cause I'll pick em up myself) but they have a $250 order minimum or they stick you with a small-order surcharge..... but even so, for that $250 I'm going to end up getting ten drums instead of four or five.

[edit]
Okay, it's cheaper than that even.
The original prices they said for the item were

Price Based on 1-3: $58.00/ea
Price Based on 4-9: $27.00/ea

I emailed back and asked what ten would cost, because nine @ $27 still doesn't go over $250.
They responded, saying the price for ten would be $22 each, and offered to waive the surcharge.
PLus they have blue ones, which I wanted originally, but were not shown on the website.
....
So it is official: for what it would cost me to buy four online and have them delivered, I can buy ten locally.
[edit end]

The local place sells NEW drums out the door cheaper than what the online places charge for used drums delivered--and the same place sells FDA-grade 5-gal buckets, too.

(if you're near St Louis, the place is http://www.clsmith.com )

-end-

Re: Free/nominal charge food grade buckets
 

I got mine at the local apple house. They had pie filling in them. Yep they smell, but they smell good.