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<pre>--- In OliveOil@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Wilson" <mike.wilson@h...> wrote:
> > The answer is yes, I have stuffed up, and thank you to
> > > Guido, João and Antony for all pointing out the folly of storing
oil in
> > > plastic containers.
> > >
> >
> > Hi Mike
> >
> > was the plastic food grade? If it was there should be no problem with
> > contamination.
> >
> >
>
> Yes, food grade plastic. I don't think the plastic itself was the
problem,
> more the exposure to air. I don't think that the plastic helped, and may
> have been a contributing factor whereas stainless steel would have been
> better. However, a plastic drum is heck of a lot cheaper than steel.
>
> From the various comments and other research on this topic I believe my
> mistake was to only bottle small amounts at a time, leaving a huge
surface
> area of oil in the drum exposed to the air. All the other factors are
> secondary, and while they may have contributed in a lesser degree,
the main
> culprit was the air and oil contact.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike.
Mikle,
Quite possibly, the answer could have been to put a squirt of Nitrogen
over the surface, if you intended to bottle just a small part of the
drum at each time. Nitrogen is cheap (though the rental on the
cylinder is horrendous!) and we, at our press, provide a nitrogen
blanket on any containers on request. (we do charge for it, but not
much!!)

Worth a thought, if you are intending to go the same way again next
season. See if you could "borrow" a bit of food grade Nitrogen from
somewhere.

John
</pre>
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