galvanized buckets and lead

[maplehound]

Fred,
i wouldn't let this isue get you to upset. I am a meat cutter by trade andI know what the isues are with that area of the food industry. Believe me they are working on them and we are constantly being inspected for all kinds of things. But just like any food inudtry we need to keep working on keeping our food supply safe. Honesly I think that the more we sanitize and protect our food supplies the more our own immune systems relaxe and become vonurable to what does slip by. But when the lawyers come calling with aligations of someone getting ill caused by your product you have to be doing something to protect your self.
As for maple, we have just a few minor issues with our product and if we as a group keep trying to improve on those problems we can keep the goverment agencies off our back. But if we don't show an effort to try and fix or prevent problems then they will come down harder on us.
Lets face it there is no other industry were a food product is produced in barns in peoples back yards or in the middle of a woods, sometimes with no way of getting to the barn but to wade through mud to get to them. And is then packaged there or in a kitchen with no inspedtion at all.
I think we are very fortunate to not have more inspection than we do. So far I believe we have been able to do an awsome job at keeping this product safe. I hope that we can continue to do so in the future, and we can if we all continue to improve and police ourselves.

[Parker]

Last time I was in a meat cutting plant it was all stainless.............

[maplehound]

All but the cutting blocks. And those are always a source of contreversy. Several years ago they made us all change to hard plastic blocks. Because wood held the bacteria more. Now they say that the wood blocks may acually be better. Everything else is SS.

[Fred Henderson]

Well what about that livestock drinking water out of those galv stock tanks and grazing the grass land covered with polutants. The feed that they are fed and all the chemicals that are put into growing feed.

[Parker]

All I am saying is if you have another option,,why would you run buckets with lead in them?? And if you do use them just test your syrup to see how much lead there is in your syrup,,,

[lmathews]

I believe you forgot the biggest industry that is in a barn,in the back yard.It is the small milk farms that still use the old dump station and pails.These systems have lead in the pails and some of the filters are galv.This milk is tested,however we do not know were this milk ends up.There is still the presence of lead and you do not here about them getting shut down,they to get inspected regularly.
So back to the topic I would not waste my time buying new if you already have stuff that works!

[maplehound]

I guess untill the state or fedural gov. comes knocking on your door you can do what you want. Here in Ohio (and after reading the maple digest in Onterio as well) the state is knocking. As for me I have all SS or food grade plastic in my set up. When I make next year I will sample my syrup, so when my customers ask ablut the lead issue , I can say yes it is a problem for some but I know mine is OK. I will be able to show them proof of it.
Don't be surprised when 20-20 or some other big evening news show does an exposey on the maple industry and really knock us all for a loop. It might even be your outfit they show. This has happened to several grocery store's meat dept. and now those stores are either closed or are in bankruptcy, and all the other store's meat dept. have to deal with the fall out.

[Fred Henderson]

I believe you forgot the biggest industry that is in a barn,in the back yard.It is the small milk farms that still use the old dump station and pails.These systems have lead in the pails and some of the filters are galv.This milk is tested,however we do not know were this milk ends up.There is still the presence of lead and you do not here about them getting shut down,they to get inspected regularly.
So back to the topic I would not waste my time buying new if you already have stuff that works!

As you well know there is a big Amish community in this area. They send theirs to a factory that makes it into cheese that is sent all over the world.

[Fred Henderson]

How feasible would it be to put a small plastic bag(food grade) inside of a galv bucket and roll it over the edge? If it was a heavy gauge, say 4 or 6 mil it would last the whole season.I will be takeing a bucket next week to my wholesaler to see what he can do.
Does anyone have a price there abouts of sap bags with the holders?

[Russell Lampron]

Fred,

The Maple Guys has the sap sack holders for $4.00 each and the sap sacks are $.50 each. I don't know if anyone makes liners for buckets but it would be a good idea if someone did. There are alot of old buckets that are still in use.

Russ