Food Safe Gutter

Gutter oil is a term used in china to describe illicit cooking oil that has already been used and is then processed by cleaning and filtering to be resold as a cheaper alternative to normal cooking oil.

Food safe gutter.

Grow shallow root plants such as radish spinach and strawberries. Gutter oil or illicit cooking oil that has been recycled from waste oil collected from restaurant fryers drains grease traps and slaughterhouse waste from table to table has emerged as a serious food safety issue in china and exposed the shortcomings of china s food safety assurance systems. You also need to consider that whilst metals do leach if you preserve the gutters with some form of chemical paint or other coating this too may contribute to the problem of food. Pvc plastic leaches toxic chemicals.

Based on all the research papers i ve read i believe it s clear pvc is a toxic material that has no place in an organic garden or anywhere. Even xinhua the government s news agency called gutter oil the most nerve jittery problem of late concerning food safety and one that showed a really nasty reality of chinese food. Gutter oil or illicit cooking oil that has been recycled from waste oil collected from restaurant fryers drains grease traps and slaughterhouse waste from table to table has emerged as a serious food safety issue in china and exposed the shortcomings of china s food safety assurance systems. The preferred location should receive at least four hours of sunlight as noted in the article gardening in the gutter literally by shilo urban with the urban authority.

We always recommend checking with the manufacturer about the food safe status. Organic gardening is an environmentally safe way to grow fruits vegetables and other plants. Food must be heated until it is 82c 176f throughout to kill any harmful bacteria and because bacteria can still grow each time food cools back down you shouldn t reheat a meal more than once. The types of rain gutter most often used for gutter gardening are made of vinyl or aluminum.

My best suggestion is to use food grade or food safe materials for all surfaces that come in contact with the plants and the hydroponic solution. Non food grade plastics can be used for drains or other non contact surfaces. Zinc is not considered a food safe material and it is recommended to avoid contact between food and galvanized surfaces because acidic foods can dissolve zinc. The sources of this oil are restaurant fryers sewers and leftover or used oil that is sold.

All plastics can leach toxic substances to some degree given the right conditions there are however safer plastics than others. You can safely grow plants in a variety of containers as long.