What
are Oxygen Absorbers?
In the food industry, many food items are transported from one destination to another. In such cases, the food products are packed in containers/closed spaces for days together. When this happens, there are chances that the food items packed may get spoilt or become stale by the time they reach their final point. This is where the role of oxygen absorbers becomes important.
Oxygen
Absorbers are small sachets, which are placed alongside the food products when
they are being packed. The oxygen absorbers remove the oxygen present in the
packed space, thus leaving behind a nitrogen-filled atmosphere. The presence of
nitrogen helps increasing the shelf life of the packed food products. Without
oxygen, fungus and other micro-organisms cannot grow in the food packets so
they do not get spoiled for a long period of time. Oxygen absorbers bring down
the oxygen levels to around .01% or even lesser. Also Check our Latest blog article here:-Oxygen Absorbers | Food Storage
Functioning of Oxygen Absorbers
The
oxygen absorbers function by means of a chemical reaction involving iron powder
present in the sachet. When the oxygen absorber starts taking in the oxygen, it
will react with this iron powder. As a result of this reaction, the iron powder
converts into rust. Once all the iron powder changes into rust, the absorbing
process stops as the oxygen absorber is now fully loaded. Next, the oxygen is
removed from the absorber. If one needs to use the oxygen absorber a second
time, then place it back in the open for the reaction to resume again.
Five Benefits of Using
Oxygen Absorbers
The advantages of using oxygen absorber
sachets in food packets are many. Listed below are five of the important ones:
- The use of oxygen absorbers prolongs the shelf life of the packed food products for longer periods of time.
- Oxygen absorbers remove oxygen from the packages and thus protect food items from fungus and other spoiling organisms like moulds.
- Placing oxygen absorbers will prevent bad smells from spreading in the packages containing food products.
- Oxygen absorbers completely rule out the need for using various kinds of additives like BHA, BHT, sulphur dioxide, sorbet’s and benzoates.
- Oxygen absorbers keep the food products fresh and unspoilt till they reach their destination point.
