How long for Oxygetn Absorbers to 'work'?

[rbeau30]

How can you be in the Air Force and not have an iron? I thought that was standard issue along with your underwear!

Ha! After tech scool, and basic, where when I still went through, we had to iron our tshirts and all clothes in our locker. I quickly stopped doing that after I was not required to do so. In place of an iron we still do stupid and menial tasks like Safety briefings and Wing-Commander's call (not much different than a high school pep rally, complete with a 'mascot').

An iron brings me to a place I don't want to go.

[J]

I have always used a food saver vacuum device. Works pretty well, but not the cheapest device, or materials to operate. I have always wondered just how well they pull out all the oxygen, seem to work well enough. This has me thinking for extra long terms storage if a small O2 absorber in the bag would help at all to suck out the last little bit. Any thoughts?

[rocktot]

Yea, it would get it down a little further. Your supposed to use some kind of 'gas' when sealing anyway. And humidity absorbers also, but few do. For rice and other touch things I would do as much as possible.

[rbeau30]

There is still a lot of space in between the food granules to hold Oxygen to feed microbes/weevil eggs. The microbes will eventually run out of oxygen, but what we are looking IMO in food storage is maximum nutritional retention over the longest period of time. I have read somewhere that those food-saver devices do not work as well with Mylar bags as the plastic bags they are designed for... and the plastic bags they utilize are not Mylar so they are porous and will leech oxygen in over the years. Plus I don't believe the food saver bags give you a true vacuum, the food in it eventually goes bad in your fridge anyways right?

Displacing the oxygen with Nitrogen like a lot of people do is a good way, but you don't get the vacuum effect which would normally give you an indication that the seal failed or something. Dessicant is cool, but there really is not much humidity here to matter I don't think. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to throw some in there if you had them. once inside Mylar inside a sealed bucket, inside a cool/dry place away from sunlight, in the arid climate we are in, I think you wouldn't have to worry as much.

I definitely would put O2 absorbers in any food storage solution (not sugar). If I have spent money on the food, I would hate to have to replace it in 15 years or so, and see it go to waste. Adding a food dessicant pack certainly would not hurt, and probably help peace of mind when it comes to ensuring your food stays shelf stable. They aren't expensive, so why not?

[J]

Makes sense, I've tested out to 3-5 years and all is good, but would be great to know it goes longer.

[rbeau30]

If it works for you I say go for it. I tend to be over-cautious. Even in my home-brew, and home canning operations. So what I do probably is overkill.