Welcome from Minnesota.
There is a big debate with a lot of preppers about whether to use buckets that are designed specifically for food or if the Home Depot buckets are good enough. We went with the buckets made from the "special" food safe plastic. But the reason wasn't so much because of the buckets. Rather we wanted the gamma seal lids and at the time, the place we got the lids would only sell them if we bought the buckets too.
GAMMA SEALS AS LOW AS $3.99 EACH
They were not cheap, but they work really well. As mentioned in another post, we do line the buckets with mylar bags and add one or two oxygen absorbers (depending on the size of the o2 absorbers). If using the mylar bags, I would not worry so much about making sure the buckets are made of the "special" food safe plastic. We also found these really neat pills that change color when exposed to oxygen. They are normally blue but turn red when exposed to oxygen. We add those also so we can judge whether the oxygen absorbers are doing their job.
The other thing I bought was a cheap 12 oz dead blow mallet. That works really well for making sure the gamma lids are good and tight and also for later opening the buckets.
Note: Do not use the oxygen absorbers with salt or sugar. It makes them both turn hard as a brick and you will need a hammer to later break them back into powder.
There is a big debate with a lot of preppers about whether to use buckets that are designed specifically for food or if the Home Depot buckets are good enough. We went with the buckets made from the "special" food safe plastic. But the reason wasn't so much because of the buckets. Rather we wanted the gamma seal lids and at the time, the place we got the lids would only sell them if we bought the buckets too.
GAMMA SEALS AS LOW AS $3.99 EACH
They were not cheap, but they work really well. As mentioned in another post, we do line the buckets with mylar bags and add one or two oxygen absorbers (depending on the size of the o2 absorbers). If using the mylar bags, I would not worry so much about making sure the buckets are made of the "special" food safe plastic. We also found these really neat pills that change color when exposed to oxygen. They are normally blue but turn red when exposed to oxygen. We add those also so we can judge whether the oxygen absorbers are doing their job.
The other thing I bought was a cheap 12 oz dead blow mallet. That works really well for making sure the gamma lids are good and tight and also for later opening the buckets.
Note: Do not use the oxygen absorbers with salt or sugar. It makes them both turn hard as a brick and you will need a hammer to later break them back into powder.
