Stock Tanks

[Father & Son]

I have a couple older stock tanks that I was thinking of running tubing into for collection.

Has anyone ever used or heard of any kind of food grade liner or plastic sheeting you could put in these to make them safe?

Jim

[Uncle Tucker]

Would the food grade paint for buckets work?

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

I have heard of food garde paint (which you have to replace every or every other year). and or food grade epoxy..

[MR Electrician]

I have a couple older stock tanks that I was thinking of running tubing into for collection.

Has anyone ever used or heard of any kind of food grade liner or plastic sheeting you could put in these to make them safe?

Jim

we tried that our first yr garbage bags, 6 mil polly,works for a few days then you eventually punch a hole in it and loose a days sap.

an old swimming pool liner work 's best it is made to stretch and is made of poly
so its chlorine based.easy to clean.

[325abn]

Why not just clean the tanks out with soap and water?

[Father & Son]

These are older rusty tanks. I was concerned about the possibility of lead solder.

[802maple]

I have never heard of a food grade garbage bag or swimming pool liner. Just wondering where to get them?

[Three Saps Sugar Shack]

well... the totes and trash cans everyone uses arent food grade.. as long as its for sap storage, and you dont have any leaching toxins... isnt all your sap getting "boiled sterile"?

[Bucket Head]

You can not "boil the lead out". You can not "sterilize" lead. No producer should be taking a chance with old equipment. It's not worth the risk.

I do not know of a food safe plastic "liner" type material. That does not mean there is'nt one out there. If it were me, I would try to find somthing to put in any old/soldered/non food grade storage tank.

As for the small tote's that are not food grade, I would try to to replace them. I am guilty of using non food grade plastic barrel's for collection. I have disposed of them since and have barrel's and cage tank's that had food product's in them.

I do not want to sound like "gloom and doom" here, but sooner or later everyone's state regulatory dept. is going to make everyone have stainless or food grade plastic everything. It would be wise to set yourselve's up now with equipment that will "pass the test".

Steve

[325abn]

Folks have beed using old stock tanks and other metalic tanks to gather sap for a hundred years. No worries, clean the tank and use it.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Just curious if the newer stock tanks have any lead in them?? I can't imagine that they do but was curious what others have to say??

[Grist Mill Maple]

we have some new stock tanks and the joints are tack welded and have a water proof sealant on them

[802maple]

Alot of totes and bags are made from recycled plastic and who knows what was in it before they were recycled. A few years ago without mentioning any names. A dealer of maple equipment came accross some inexpensive tubing and it sold for nearly half of what all the maple brands were going for,well it turned out that unknown to the dealer it was recycled plastic and it had some serious chemical problems. It spoiled alot of syrup and luckily it didn't get to harm any consumers as I remember it. This was a big issue here in Vermont at the time,but luckily it got taken care of. We have to be very careful what we use as it is going to eventually go into someone's body. If something goes wrong it is a good way to get some advertising even if it is advertising you don't want.

Also be careful with paints as some say they are food grade but they are really for incidental touch which means it can fall on it and picked immediately without harming the product,but it isn't safe for storage. Read the label well.

[gmcooper]

This is what one of our state inspectors told me years ago on plastic containers for sap collection. She wanted anything used for sap storage to be food grade period. That included storage tanks, transport tanks, collection tanks or barrels, and buckets on or at trees. Any thing that sap sat in was considered storage. The only area she had any tollerance for was gathering pails. As she stated the sap is only there for long enough to carry and dump again. Still she wanted food grade even for gathering pails.

The whole discussion came about as one producer in the area had a collection of 5 gal buckets in use. Some were food grade pickle buckets and some were nice clean white buckets that were not food grade. The old pickle buckets were ok (she hoped they had all been cleaned well for the sake of the syrup), the others were in fact made from x% post consumer recycled plastic.
Her explaination was the recyled non food grade can and often does leach chemicals from the plastic. The types of plastic used can create a microporous(sp?) surface that can cause contamination from the chemicals or bacterial growth once in use. Food grade containers have to use certain type of plastic that will not leach chemicals and that plastic also have a nonporous surface. They cost more to make and thats why they get stamped as food grade when they meet the criteria.
Her next set of questions were about tubing tanks. She asked if I used trash barrels. I never have but she then explained same basic areas. She did say there are some barrels (that are shaped like trash barrels) on the market that usually are a gray color, they have some type of stamp on them for food grade and if you smell a brand new one there is no odor. Butchershops often use them along with the heavy duty totes made of the same material.
She was ok with the blue plastic juice barrels.

I have not seen that inspector here since then but the others we have had sometimes have asked about plastic buckets that we use to gather with if they see one sitting around.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

So whats the verdict on the newer stock tanks, are they considered acceptable or not??

[Bucket Head]

I am curious about the newer tank's also. I would find out what the "sealant" is on the seam's. Somthing could leach from that substance too. Yes, small amount's I'm sure, but I still would'nt want it in the syrup if I could avoid it.

Can anyone verify that the food grade plastic is stamped/marked "HDPE"? It stand's for High Density Poly Ethlyene.

Like I said earlier, we all should make sure we have the proper container's. The earlier post about the state inspector visit was very interesting. There will come a time where the inspector's will offer no "leeway" on anything.

Steve

[Grist Mill Maple]

The stock tanks that we have are acceptable for sap .There is no solder on our tanks and thay are only a year old .

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I don't disagree with you, but I am sure some will say stock tanks are food grade.

[gmcooper]

I was hoping some one had more info on the newer stock tanks as I need to replace one. I recently saw a galvanized water tank (the old style with no airbladder) in a store. That would tell me that at least galvanized tanks are ok for potable water. Maybe?

[super sappy]

My local feed dealer called, I think the name of the company is Idea? and Belen? And asked if these metal tanks were ok for potable water and they said NO. The plastic ones they sell are they are stamped and it also says so on the description in the catalogue. FDA aproved. I have been doing a search to find a FDA aproved plastic that is like rolled plastic sheeting to line a tank like the first poster said. It would be great to have a plastic product like this that you could use on old galvanized sap tanks. US plastic said that this product does not exist and gave me some leads that did not pan out.- MY 1 cent( times are tight) -ss

[802maple]

The biggest thing that I understand about stock tanks is the galvanize itself and not the sealant. Something about the zinc process, but I would like to hear the official word.

[Brent]

some beekeepers use plastic lining in drums for honey. I doubt the membrane would stand up to hot packing of syrup however. But you might want to talk to a beekeeping supplier shop

[Mike]

CDL sells plastic barrels for hot packing and they have replaceable liners...The liners might work for sap holding as well.......Might be worth checking into.....