Apocalyptic Prepping

You’ve probably noticed the little white packets that come in a lot of packaged foods. The ones that say “Do Not Eat” on them. These little guys are oxygen absorbers. They pull oxygen out of the food packages, better preserving the food and extending the shelf life. They can be bought easily by private citizens, and we use them in Jerky an in other food storage applications. This should teach you all about oxygen packets.

How Oxygen Absorbers Work

Oxygen absorbers are filled with iron powder. This iron powder reacts with the oxygen, essentially causing it to rust. This reaction also produces a small amount of heat, not enough to really cause any change in food, but it should be noted. It takes about 4 hours, if there is sufficient oxygen, to completely use up the effectiveness of one of these packets. After that time they no longer produce any heat, or absorb oxygen.

How to Store Oxygen Absorbers

As mentioned above, they only have an effective time of about 4 hours. Because of this you want to minimize the time they are in the open air. They generally come in large packages though, of 200 or more. Most people don’t have 200 food packages they’re doing at one time though, so you need to store them. We recommend either vacuum seal them, or putting them in a mason jar when you’ve used what you need. Do this quickly though, as soon as you open the main container. The more they’re exposed to the outside air, the less effective they become. Many will store them in vacuum sealed bags of 10 so they’re only using what they need and they don’t risk ruining all of them, and they only open what they need.

They can sometimes act as a partial vacuum themselves, reducing the total volume of air. Oxygen only makes up about 20% of the air, the rest is nitrogen, so it would only eliminate up to that 20%. Bugs need oxygen to grow though, so the remaining nitrogen isn’t a problem as far as preservation goes. It doesn’t provide a full vacuum though, so we still recommend vacuum sealing the food you’re trying to preserve.

How Many Oxygen Absorbers do I need?

The answer to this question depends on the size of the oxygen absorber, the size of the container, and the density of the food, or the amount of air space it has. It’s hard to give specifics because of the big variety. There is much less air in a bucket of flour than there is in a bucket of pasta, and in pasta alone, if you just think of spaghetti noodles and macaroni noodles, there’s a big difference in open air space. There’s a great website that has put together a guide- Oxygen Absorbers Recommended Amounts>

Hand Warmers as Oxygen Absorbers:

Some people use the hot hands handwarmers. They use the same reaction as the oxygen absorbers, and are larger, so some people like them. We do not recommend them because these can leave rust dust in your food. They aren’t food grade. Oxygen packets are designed to allow oxygen and moisture to go into the packet, but they contain all the iron and other chemicals. We discourage using handwarmers. There are better options. The only application we could possible see is in a sealed grain barrell with a lot of open space. If you put a hand warmer in a cup, not on the food directly, it could work. The worry would be that if you moved the container, you would mix it with the handwarmer, potentially contaminating your food.

You may also be interested in some of our other food storage articles- we recommend these:

• Dehydrating Marshmallows
• Making an Olive Oil Candle
• Starting your Food Storage for less than $100
• Getting your Food Storage to 6 Months As Fast As Possible!

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