Water — Safety

Can You Store Water in a Container That Isn’t Food-Grade?

It depends on two things: what the container was sold as, and what it has held since. The number stamped inside the triangle on the bottom cannot answer either question — it names the plastic, nothing more. A container made for food or drinking water is fine. A container that once held chemicals is out, permanently. Everything in between has a rule, and the rules are short.

Last updated: November 1, 2026

Sold for drinking water or food contact: yes — sanitize it and fill it.

Once held chemicals — bleach, pesticide, detergent, fuel: no. Not for drinking water, ever. Replace it.

A milk jug or juice carton: no for drinking. The residue stays in the plastic and feeds bacteria.

No food label and you are not sure: flushing and washing water only, until the maker confirms it is food-grade.

The number on the bottom is not a safety rating

The number inside the chasing-arrows triangle is a resin identification code. It tells a recycling sorter which plastic the container is made of — 1 is PET, 2 is HDPE, 5 is polypropylene, and so on. State labeling laws describe the code in exactly those terms: it indicates the resin used to produce the container. Nothing in the system rates the finished container for food. Dyes, additives, and how a given bucket was manufactured are not in the number, which is why two buckets can both say 2 while only one of them is sold as food-grade.

Food-grade is a property of the finished product: the maker produced and labeled that container for food contact. That is also the CDC’s position in practice — its emergency water guidance says to use FDA-approved food-grade storage containers, and if you are not sure whether a container is food-grade, contact the manufacturer. The agency sends you to the maker because the stamp on the bottom cannot settle it. Our water storage calculator now asks the container question for the same reason, and splits your gallons into drinking-safe and not.

Container by container

Container	Drinking water?	The short why
Water container sold for drinking water	Yes	Made for it — sanitize, fill, date it
Unopened bottled water	Yes	The CDC calls it the safest source
2-liter soda bottles	Yes	The accepted reuse — wash and sanitize
Bucket labeled food-grade / food-contact	Yes	The label is the credential, not the number
Bucket with no food label	Not for drinking	Flushing and washing until the maker confirms
Milk jugs, juice cartons	No	Residue cannot be washed out of the plastic
Anything that held chemicals	Never	Bleach, pesticide, detergent, fuel — replace it

Glass sits outside the table on purpose: it adds nothing the plastic does not, and the CDC’s fallback criteria for a non-food-grade container still ask for durable and unbreakable with a tight-closing top — glass fails the unbreakable test in the exact week you would be moving it.

Why milk jugs fail twice

Milk jugs are the most common shortcut and the worst container on the list. The plastic takes on milk protein and sugars that washing does not fully remove, and that residue feeds bacterial growth in stored water. The jug itself is also built to biodegrade on a shelf-life clock — thin walls that go brittle and leak months in, usually at the bottom of a stack. Two-liter soda bottles cost nothing more, are made of sturdier PET, and are the reuse the federal guidance actually blesses. Our sister desk at Truly Preserved works the milk-jug question through in full: Can I store water in old milk jugs?

Getting a good container ready

Wash the container with dish soap and rinse it clean. Then sanitize: mix 1 teaspoon of unscented liquid household bleach — the label should say 5% to 9% sodium hypochlorite — into 1 quart of water, pour it in, close the top, and shake so the solution coats every inside surface. Wait at least 30 seconds, pour it out, and let the container air-dry. Fill with tap water, label it “drinking water” with the fill date, and store it somewhere cool and dark — the CDC’s range is 50°F to 70°F — away from gasoline, pesticides, and anything else with fumes. Water you bottled yourself gets replaced every six months; commercially bottled water follows its printed date.

Questions people ask about water containers

My bucket has a 2 in the triangle. Is it food-grade?
Not on that evidence. The 2 says the bucket is HDPE resin. Food-grade is the maker’s designation for that specific product — look for “food-grade” or “food contact” on the label or the product page, or ask the manufacturer, which is what the CDC tells people to do.

I scrubbed a detergent bottle until it smells like nothing. Can it hold drinking water now?
No. Containers that have held toxic chemicals are the CDC’s one absolute: do not use them for stored water. Smell is not a test, and the replacement container costs less than the risk.

How long does stored water keep?
Water you filled yourself: replace it every six months, per the CDC and Ready.gov. Unopened commercially bottled water: follow the date printed on it. Either way, the date goes on the container the day you fill it.

Sources: CDC, “How to Create and Store an Emergency Water Supply” (cdc.gov/water-emergency); Ready.gov, “Water” (ready.gov/water); Kentucky’s resin-code labeling law (KRS 224.50-585) for what the triangle number is defined to mean.

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