Plastics

[RussTaylor]

Hi everyone

I've been doing a little reading of late :blink: and am a little concerned about the nasties that can leach out of plastics.

I noticed last week that my 15L Willow drinks eski that I use as a Mash Tun has "Not to be used for hot liquid" written on the bottom. Anyone know if this means that it's not food grade or just that the plastic may warp under high temperatures? Does anyone elses eskies have this type of message on the bottom? I'm about to upgrade the mash tun so would like to ensure that the plastic is food grade.

Apparently in the US, when the plastic is food grade it is engraved with a particular symbol or code set by their food authority. Anyone know if we have something similar here?

Anyone know how I can tell if PVC tubing is food grade? It was bought from a homebrew shop and I'm using it in my mash tun and for draining off the wort but it is warping and turning opaque from the heat. On the Grain and Grape website, only the silicon tubing is listed as food grade...

Sorry for all questions but I wouldn't like to kill off my whole family from plastic poisoning...perhaps just the inlaws... h34r:

Cheers
Russ

 

[DJR]

I'd be more worried about the damage to your liver from alcohol than a little bit of plastic additive leaching from those plastics.

Eskies have to be food grade, pretty much. Some really cheap ones are a bit worse than others but the WIllow ones should be fine. They say "not to be used for hot liquids" as a reference to trying to keep boiling water in it, which would warp and crack the thing very fast. Mash and sparge temps will be fine.

PVC is not the greatest for transferring hot wort, if you can afford it go silicone for sure, but a bit of PVC isn't going to hurt, after all, it's only in contact with the wort for a couple of minutes at most.

 

[delboy]

I see This Question of plastics and metals comes up alot on this site and about how it will kill us. but i guess the thing to remember here is we only do relitivly small batches when we brew in comparrission to the breweries. This is also what is said to be fact by JOHN J PALMER now saying all this i would surly recommend read the book called "how to brew" this certianly gave me piece of mind when i got to the section on plastics and metals with regards to us the home brewer. I would have never even looked at this book if "MERCSOWN" did not sugest it in his smart ares comment to me but it sure was a warrented read.

DELBOY