Some time ago thre was a thread about used plastic food containers. I
used to (1970's) get them from someone who worked at a doughnut shoppe
where the jelly filling came in 5 gal plastic tubs. I found that after
a while the plastic deteriorated and became brittle. I would only
recommend using those for dry foods.

Lately I discovered that paint now comes in plastic paint tins. After
rolling a gallon of the stuff (water-based acrylic latex) onto a floor
I rinsed out the emplty container and am using it to store seed
walnuts in the cold room over the winter. The container has the usual
metal paint tin lid which is pretty well air tight. The walnuts were
put into a plastic bag inside the container. I think these empty
plastic paint tins make good air tight containers for storing dry
preserves a gallon at a time.

Wm Watt > wrote in

ups.com:

> Some time ago thre was a thread about used plastic food
> containers. I used to (1970's) get them from someone who
> worked at a doughnut shoppe where the jelly filling came in
> 5 gal plastic tubs. I found that after a while the plastic
> deteriorated and became brittle. I would only recommend
> using those for dry foods.
>
> Lately I discovered that paint now comes in plastic paint
> tins. After rolling a gallon of the stuff (water-based
> acrylic latex) onto a floor I rinsed out the emplty
> container and am using it to store seed walnuts in the cold
> room over the winter. The container has the usual metal
> paint tin lid which is pretty well air tight. The walnuts
> were put into a plastic bag inside the container. I think
> these empty plastic paint tins make good air tight
> containers for storing dry preserves a gallon at a time.

don't put food you plan on eating in non-food grade plastic
containers. plastic buckets may all look alike to you, but the
chemical components of plastics vary widely &, unless the
bucket is specifically food-grade, it's likely it will be
leaching chemicals into your food.
the same goes for plastic bags. use food grade plastics.
BTW, i still have lemon filling buckets that came with this
house. the previous owners aquired them in the late 70s. yes,
they can get brittle, especially if exposed to extreme
temperature changes, but the ones that stay in my basement (at
about 60F year round) are in almost new condition.
i certainly wouldn't put foods in an old plastic paint
bucket!
lee

"Wilson" > wrote in message
...
> sometime in the recent past Wm Watt posted this:
>> Some time ago thre was a thread about used plastic food containers. I
>> used to (1970's) get them from someone who worked at a doughnut shoppe
>> where the jelly filling came in 5 gal plastic tubs. I found that after
>> a while the plastic deteriorated and became brittle. I would only
>> recommend using those for dry foods.
>>
>> Lately I discovered that paint now comes in plastic paint tins. After
>> rolling a gallon of the stuff (water-based acrylic latex) onto a floor
>> I rinsed out the emplty container and am using it to store seed
>> walnuts in the cold room over the winter. The container has the usual
>> metal paint tin lid which is pretty well air tight. The walnuts were
>> put into a plastic bag inside the container. I think these empty
>> plastic paint tins make good air tight containers for storing dry
>> preserves a gallon at a time.
> I have a real hard time getting smells out of plastic containers and I'm
> surprised that you can to the degree that you would store your walnuts in
> an empty paint can regardless of whether or not it contained latex or oil
> paints. I have plastic containers that are several years old that still
> smell of the original items that were stored in them.
>
> I see you don't plan on eating the walnuts, but I disagree in principle
> with your last line and won't be storing any food stuffs in old plastic
> paint cans.
>
> Just my 2 cents.
>
> --
> Wilson N45 W67

hmmmmm...I can't imagine using old paint cans for storing food
stuffs...although you DID say you were plastic bagging the walnuts first, so
maybe that's OK. I still have a bucket that I got from where I used to
work....it had 20 kg of Icing in it from Rose and Laflamme Co Ltd....I bet
this bucket is up to 20 years old! I can still see that it had maple icing
in it (check mark in the right box). There's no date left on the bucket,
but it makes for great dry dog food storage....

I have a couple other buckets in the house that used to have muffin batter
in them. Those now have dry cat food in them , or are wash and mop buckets,
or basement garbage cans (they're lidless now..)

Kathi

Kathi Jones wrote:
> "Wilson" > wrote in message
> ...
>> sometime in the recent past Wm Watt posted this:
>>> Some time ago thre was a thread about used plastic food containers. I
>>> used to (1970's) get them from someone who worked at a doughnut shoppe
>>> where the jelly filling came in 5 gal plastic tubs. I found that after
>>> a while the plastic deteriorated and became brittle. I would only
>>> recommend using those for dry foods.
>>>
>>> Lately I discovered that paint now comes in plastic paint tins. After
>>> rolling a gallon of the stuff (water-based acrylic latex) onto a floor
>>> I rinsed out the emplty container and am using it to store seed
>>> walnuts in the cold room over the winter. The container has the usual
>>> metal paint tin lid which is pretty well air tight. The walnuts were
>>> put into a plastic bag inside the container. I think these empty
>>> plastic paint tins make good air tight containers for storing dry
>>> preserves a gallon at a time.
>> I have a real hard time getting smells out of plastic containers and I'm
>> surprised that you can to the degree that you would store your walnuts in
>> an empty paint can regardless of whether or not it contained latex or oil
>> paints. I have plastic containers that are several years old that still
>> smell of the original items that were stored in them.
>>
>> I see you don't plan on eating the walnuts, but I disagree in principle
>> with your last line and won't be storing any food stuffs in old plastic
>> paint cans.
>>
>> Just my 2 cents.
>>
>> --
>> Wilson N45 W67
>
> hmmmmm...I can't imagine using old paint cans for storing food
> stuffs...although you DID say you were plastic bagging the walnuts first, so
> maybe that's OK. I still have a bucket that I got from where I used to
> work....it had 20 kg of Icing in it from Rose and Laflamme Co Ltd....I bet
> this bucket is up to 20 years old! I can still see that it had maple icing
> in it (check mark in the right box). There's no date left on the bucket,
> but it makes for great dry dog food storage....
>
> I have a couple other buckets in the house that used to have muffin batter
> in them. Those now have dry cat food in them , or are wash and mop buckets,
> or basement garbage cans (they're lidless now..)
>
> Kathi
>
>
>
I have a few "Butchers Blend" dog food containers left from when our old
dog was a pup. they are food grade, have screw on lids, and after triple
washing and air drying, have various flours in them. they're just the
right size for a 5 lb bag of flour to fit. A couple more have dog treats
and puppy food for the new dawg. Most of these containers are at least
nine or ten years old.

George