'Food grade' hydrochloric acid - that isn't

(That's water to the rest of us!) Beer is about 95% water, so if you want to discuss water treatment, filtering etc this is the place to do it!
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Kev888
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'Food grade' hydrochloric acid - that isn't

Post by Kev888 » Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:11 pm

Just by way of a heads up: I recently bought some "food grade" hydrochloric acid from 'solvent-shop' on ebay for water-treatment. When it arrived there was nothing at all on the container that indicated it was food grade so I asked them about this; apparently they consider it suitable for use around food (like cleaning food-making machinery) but tell me it is 'not' suitable for ingestion.

In fact they seemed unaware there even are any grades of hydrochloric acid that could be used in food itself. So my understanding of 'food grade' hydrochloric and theirs is clearly not the same, and it seems deeply unlikely that this product complies with E507 or any other food-additive level of specification. How bad it actually is if ingested I've no idea, but thought it worth a mention. Mine looks set for patio-cleaning duties.
Kev

aamcle
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Re: 'Food grade' hydrochloric acid - that isn't

Post by aamcle » Wed Jul 26, 2017 5:13 pm

thats food contact not food grade.

try for analar or arastar lab grades.


aamcle

AnthonyUK

Re: 'Food grade' hydrochloric acid - that isn't

Post by AnthonyUK » Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:03 am

I'm guessing it might be worth stocking up given the recent spate of attacks and the impending knee-jerk reaction.

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Kev888
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Re: 'Food grade' hydrochloric acid - that isn't

Post by Kev888 » Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:57 pm

Yes, that was the motivation for my order. They seem to be suggesting that people can simply use bleach instead, well.. not in this case. Thankfully a little acid goes a long way for treating my tap water, so a modest amount should give me a few years to get into the use of RO water or other/weaker acids, should that become necessary long term.
aamcle wrote:thats food contact not food grade.
Yes, it certainly isn't food grade by any definition that I believe. Either way though, I'm just pleased that I checked what they mean by it.

Fortunately another seller, APC pure, does sell truly food grade hydrochloric to the EU's E507 specification, and so I now have some of that. Their postage is a bit costly but then they use APC overnight who can presumably deal safely with such things and (at least for me) seem to deliver when specified (solvent-shop sent theirs in an unmarked box via Yodel, and the next day delivery took three days).
Kev

AnthonyUK

Re: 'Food grade' hydrochloric acid - that isn't

Post by AnthonyUK » Thu Jul 27, 2017 2:13 pm

Excuse my ignorance but is food grade just very high purity in this instance?

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Kev888
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Re: 'Food grade' hydrochloric acid - that isn't

Post by Kev888 » Thu Jul 27, 2017 2:47 pm

Yes, I believe it is pretty much about the purity; less than a specified amount of things like arsenic, lead, mercury, organic matter, oxidising substances and so on. It doesn't imply that (for example) concentrated acid is safe to drink 'as is', just that when used appropriately the levels of contaminants will be acceptable.

Obviously, we tend to dilute these things heavily so in practice (and at our own risk) could probably get away with slightly higher levels of impurity. EDIT: I've taken this stance with my 'nearly' food grade sulphuric acid, since I couldn't find any truly food grade stuff that was available for public purchase (the higher concentrations aren't either). It isn't impossible that the solvent shop hydrochloric would do too. But personally I'd want a specification and evidence of quality assurance before I intentionally use any acid in my beer, and that isn't always forthcoming with some of the lesser grades. Otherwise if it was just intended for batteries or something who knows what could be in there?
Kev

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