from 1 to 4 carbon atoms and particularly ethyl acrylate other useful monomers in this class include other c 1 15 alkyl acrylate esters and methacrylate esters such as for example propyl acrylate isopropyl acrylate butyl acrylate isobutyl acrylate tertiary butyl acrylate pentyl acrylate decyl acrylate lauryl acrylate isobornyl acrylate methyl methacrylate butyl methacrylate isobutyl methacrylate hexyl methacrylate 2 ethyl hexyl methacrylate octyl methacrylate and nonyl methacrylate other useful monomers are those readily commercial available monomers having vinyl unsaturation and include styrenic monomers such as styrene vinyl toluene divinyl benzene isoprene and butadiene the epoxy resin portion of the epoxy acrylic copolymer mixture can be either aliphatic or aromatic although the aromatic epoxy resins are preferred the most preferred epoxy resins are polyglycidyl ethers of bisphenol a especially those having 1 2 epoxy equivalency of from about 1 3 to about 2 the molecular weight should be from about 350 to about 20 000 and preferably for sanitary coating compositions from about 4 000 to about 10 000 mixtures of monoepoxides and diepoxides are desirable another procedural variation is the introduction of the aromatic polyether which is devoid of oxirane functionality by reacting epoxide groups with benzoic acid phenol or similar monoreactive epoxide blocking agent in preferred practice the epoxy resin is a mixture including aromatic polyether having a single oxirane group and aromatic polyether having two oxirane groups this mixture of epoxy functionality maximizes compatibility although the aromatic polyether devoid of oxirane functionality can be added later and the mixture can be heated and agitated to enhance the intimacy of the association between the various components epoxy resins are predominantly linear chain.