Galvanized garbage can?

[802maple]

I think because we are making a food product, that, we should try as hard as we can make a safe product. Stainless is the best way to go if you can find it and afford it.
Now having said this, I would like to offer the following.

I do believe that I was a kid once upon a time and I had syrup made from sap that was stored in galvanized tanks, boiled in leaded galvanized pans, stored in turn plate milk cans that were soldered with lead that even had a occasional broken mercury thermometer in it. Also I probably chewed on leaded paint on the windowsill along with my brothers and sister (this could explain my sister, though) I wish I had a couple hundred customers like myself that used as much as I do, then I could just make a living with maple. I can't see where it has effected anyone in my family or friends. I think sometimes we overreact about things.

Again we should Like Dr. Tim says, take every possible chance to make the safest product that we can and not use dirty underwear to filter with, oil cans to store it in and half a oil drum to boil our wonderful product in. I have big shoulders so let me have it.

[heus]

802,
What about clean underwear?

[802maple]

Clean underwear would be fine unless somebody had thought about wearing them, then you would have to toss them. LOL

[KenWP]

We all know this food safe thing gets taken to a extreme on here. I bet everyone of the people who say they worry about what they will feed their kids also drives the speed limit and reads all the labels on every food product they use also.
I will have to say I had to get all the old metal army fillings taken out of my teeth a few years ago due to them killing me off and have new ones put in so heavy metals can hurt you once in a while.

[captian niko]

I also have concerns about galvinized tanks, my 300 gln storage tank is about 30 years old and it does have a coupla small (quarter size) shiny spots.
I am definatly more concernd about plastic (remember the hype about nelgene bottles?) I use as little plastic as posible.
I'm thinking to build a wooden tank to replace the galvinized, I'm a boat builder so not concerned about leekage. My concern is with bacteria and cleaning. would a 1/20 bleach sulution before and after season be good or does eny one have sugestions?
I have considered coating my galvinized tank with epoxy sealer this is suposed to be food safe. it would work for the fellow who has galvinized bukets (epoxy needs to be coated if exposed to sunlight) any comments on epoxy?

[happy thoughts]

I wouldn't use wood imho. Wood was the original standard and it's been replaced for good reason. It seems an excellent medium for bacterial growth. I can't see how you could ever really clean a wooden container. Because wood is porous, there's always going to be some residual sugar left in it. That's food for sap bacteria to grow on, especially if the container is damp in storage.

The bleach will kill any surface bacteria at the time of cleaning but new bacteria could grow there even after sanitizing. Bleach also seems likely to soak into the wood beyond the reach of a very good rinsing so I might also be worried about off flavors.

If you're that concerned and against plastic, maybe you should consider stainless.

[captian niko]

thanks for the advice, stainless is expensive but would be great. my gathering tank is alluminum. would alluminum work for storage tank?

[happy thoughts]

thanks for the advice, stainless is expensive but would be great. my gathering tank is alluminum. would alluminum work for storage tank?

Probably, but I'm the wrong person to ask being such a small home-use-only producer. They make aluminum sap collecting buckets so that would make it seem OK.

For long term storage the cons might be the potential for pitting and corrosion if the sap sours and turns acidic. You might end up with a metallic taste to your syrup. Also, I think there's an old myth about some relation between aluminum and Alzheimer's which I believe has been discredited, but right or wrong, some people still won't go anywhere near an aluminum cooking pot.