Food Safety 101

Hi,

Next week is the Lake County Fair, where I help coordinate the 4-H Water and Soda Pop Sale. If you are coming up there, I do hope all your drinks will be from 4-H ... so much for the soft sell!

We've been using the decorative barrels to display and cool drinks. We retired them last year and despite gentle persuasion could not obtain new barrels for this year.

I am contemplating several things, one being plastic barrels from the hardware store which look like garbage cans but shorter. The plastic they're made from is certainly not food safe, though I wonder if that is even an issue here. They will be filled with pop cans and plastic bottles with ice to keep them cold. Do I need to be concerned with the plastic they are made from? If yes, is there any kind of food safe plastic sheeting I should contemplate lining the barrels with? Anything else I should consider?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Since you are buying the product from wither Pepsico or Coca Cola, why not contact them directly and ask what they recommend. I am sure that the sales rep would have experience doing this sort of thing ... and might even toss in the supplies.

All restaurant and general food supply businesses stock food safe plastic bags in various sizes. I don't know of any in Chicago, but I'm sure you can find them.

I agree that seeing if Pepsi or Coke will furnish them if you use their product would be the best idea. They might even loan you refrigerators for a non-profit gig.

jlawrence01 wrote:Since you are buying the product from wither Pepsico or Coca Cola, why not contact them directly and ask what they recommend. I am sure that the sales rep would have experience doing this sort of thing ... and might even toss in the supplies.

Indeed--think of the brand bearing plastic barrel displays at 'C' stores. Not only should you get these gratis, I suspect you could launch a price/promo bidding war between pepsi/coke for the placement. Call me.

Hi,

I have from Pepsi three double door refrigerators, a regular pop dispensing machine, a hot dog wagon and lots of signage for the Fair. I had several of the point of purchase (POP) barrels from Pepsi, which died from natural causes last year.

In many respects, I have been treated very generously from Pepsi. What I have not been able to extract from them are replacement POP barrels. I requested a year ago, several months ago and just recently with no favorable result. I'm now to the point where I need to solve the problem on my own.

As for the competition angle, the Fair has a 5 year exclusive with Pepsi. I actually have someone ready to private label water for me. I simply cannot use them because of the contractual agreement.

When I first took this project over, it was the cute kids selling a few sodas. We now single handedly keep the prices down on liquid refreshments and outsell everyone. We went from cute to competitors!

Regards,

Cathy,
Try Edward Don for food safe containers. They may also know where to send you if that doesn't work.
Paulette

Cathy,

I don't think you will have a problem using any type of container you wish since all of the beverages are individually sealed. IIRC food safe containers are only necessary if the food item is directly contacting the container. For instance, in a restaurant after prepping the soups and sauces.

If I am incorrect there are a number of bars that are violating the law by selling beer directly from a lare steel tub.

Flip