There are some significant differences in home heating pellets and the pellets that are safe to cook with:
1. Allowed ingredient woods - home heating pellets can contain any wood.Used lumber from uncontrolled sources is common. It is called "recycling" and actually has some great tax incentives associated with it for the pellet makers. The bag may say "oak" - but if you read the fine print on the manufacturer's website - that is not a guaranteed 100%. Filer woods can come from used pallets - or any other source of wood deemed needed at the time.
2. The lubricants used on the machines used to make home heating pellets can be any petroleum based lubes. Including silicones.
3. Food grade pellets from reputable manafacturers ( see our sponsors - we have verified their processes before allowing them to be sponsors
) use ONLY food grade - approved lubricants.
So - my question would be this: Why risk it? Good quality food grade pellets pellets are CHEAP as compared to charcoal, propane, etc. And... if you knew that the butcher was using petroleum based lubricants - rather than food grade - in his sausage grinder and stuffer...would you feel o.k. with feeding that sausage to your family?
Buying clean wood- instead of used plywood or pallets and shipping containers to make pellets with and using the correct lubricants cost more. But - it is so little in the cost of what we cook to eat - is it worth it?