Packing with Oxygen Absorbers?

[AngelaBarbara]

Hi Friends,

I have been working diligently on my food preparedness, and packed up over 800 pounds of beans and grains for long term storage this weekend.

I used 5 gallon buckets (that I got free by posting a request on the internet at a local website) lined with mylar pail liners. I also packed some short-term storage food in smaller mylar bags. It was all packed with Oxygen Absorbers. 1 500cc absorber for each small bag, and 3 for each 5 gallon pail.

I noticed the next morning that most of the bags had a vacuum such that you could see the outline of the grain through the mylar on the smaller bags. Some of the smaller bags did not have this, even though they were completely sealed.

I also noticed that some of the 5 gallon pail liners likewise still had some unabsorbed air in them; they did not "suck in" like I thought they would. But some looked like they were completely devoid of air.

Here's a question for you who are experienced in packing with oxygen absorbers: Even without the "suck in" factor, is the food still properly packed, and perhaps the oxygen is absorbed, but other gasses are still in there? Or should I open up the bags, put in more oxygen absorbers, and re-seal those that appear to still have air in them? (Note: This is what I ended up doing when I couldn't get an on-point reply to my question. I took extra care to squeeze out the extra air, and put more absorbers in, and sealed 'em all up. That seemed to resolve the issue.)

Thanks for your replies! I have really enjoyed reading this forum as I prepare a "food cushion" for my family.

[goofball]

I am interested in how you got the buckets. Where did you post the request for the buckets? I have some beans I would like to convert like you did

[AngelaBarbara]

I just posted a "wanted" ad on Craigslist. A guy that works at a food packing plant replied.

Make sure you use pail liners if you want to store stuff long-term; oxygen molecules are small enough to eventually transpire through the bucket walls if they are not lined with a mylar liner.

[bayoumom]

I have been told that we should use 4 oxygen packets for a 5 gallon bucket. Did you get your bulk items from a local warehouse or from the Bishop's Storehouse? Where did you get the pail liners?

[AngelaBarbara]

Hi Bayoumom,

I bought the grains and the Oxygen Absorbers from Honeyville Grains. They have outlets in Utah and in Rancho Cucamonga California. I think that Honeyville has some of the best prices for Oxygen Absorbers. Even their website price (much higher than the warehouse price) is pretty good.

I bought the pail liners from Sorbent Systems.

Yes, I had heard that you had to use 4 oxygen absorbers for a 5 gallon pail. I read 3 elsewhere on the web, so did my own experiment. I used 3, and all of my mylar bags had a vacuum after I sealed them. ("Look," I said to my husband, "they all suckied!" Suckied. A very technical term, hehe.)

If I were packing items that did not pack closely (pretzels? cookies?) then there would be more air to be absorbed, so you would have to use more. If I were packing a 6 gallon pail, I would use 4 absorbers.

You can do your own experiment: pack up one pail of grain, and use 3 oxygen absorbers. Wait overnight. If your bag has "suckied" then you have used up all the oxygen in the bag, and you are fine. If it didn't "suckie" then you need to use another absorber. Make sure you squeeze out as much of the air as you can before you seal the bag with the impulse sealer or iron.

[hankpac]

Oxy tabs are made of iron filings. Finely crushed iron. Like that black powder you get paying with a magnet.
It binds oxygen by oxidizing (rusting), not by pulling a vacuum.
It is important to know what you are using and how it works.
Not knowing leads to mistaken beliefs that perpetuates across the population of people using these materials.
If you want a vacuum, use a vacu-sealer, and seal the mylar after vacuuming, or "burp" the 5 gallon bucket like you used to do with Tupperware.
Finally, you can obtain a large bottle of CO2 from a welding supply, They will drop it off for you (it's a rental, you pay only for the gas used), and put it in your garage.get a hose, regulator and nozzle from the supplier. When filled with product, poke the nozzle down into the bucket, and give a 5-10 second squirt. The bucket is full of CO2 when you can sniff at the top of the bucket, and the CO2 burns your nose (like a fizzy coke when you first start to drink it.) As long as you dip product out of the bucket, the CO2 will stay in it. Don't tip the bucket to obtain product, as the CO2 will pour out too.
I have used this method for 25 years. Works great.

[AngelaBarbara]

"It binds oxygen by oxidizing (rusting), not by pulling a vacuum. "

Yes, it binds oxygen by oxidization, and it does result in a vacuum. The two are not mutually exclusive.

When the oxygen is absorbed, it makes a vacuum because you have lower pressure inside the bag than outside...and that's the definition of a vacuum.

[dalepres]

I have gotten many useful preparedness and food storage tips from this site so I wanted to give a little back. I'm new to using oxygen absorbers and to Mylar bags so maybe all this won't hold water but, with what I've studied combined with years of experience in food storage and vacuum sealing, I think that much of it will hold up.

I vacuum pack quite a bit of the food we store, even for short term use. When it comes time to fix dinner, there's not much worse than opening a bag of rice or spaghetti that you purchased only a month or two ago and finding it full of weevils. I have vacuum packed rice, spaghetti, elbow macaroni, etc. and stored them just like that for as long as 5 years (so far) before using them and not noticed any reduction in quality. Though the bags are pricey, they really don't cost as much as what throwing away grains and pasta every few months costs.

To extend the storage life and improve the reliability of vacuum packing, I ordered a bunch of 100CC oxygen absorbers and packed a bunch more rice, spaghetti, macaroni, and popcorn. I'd like to do even better by going to higher quality metallic Mylar bags but a vacuum sealer that will handle them is soooo expensive.

Here are the tips or lessons that I have learned over several years of vacuum packing.

1. A big problem for pastas and other dry foods is sharp pointy edges that poke holes in the bag after sealing. For spaghetti, I have begun forming little "boots" out of scraps of bags using my sealer. These boots over the last inch or so of the end of the spaghetti gives a second layer of bag material and prevents the spaghetti from poking through.

2. For pastas, both shells and elbow, I double bag them to prevent the holes. Usually I vacuum pack 1/2 lb at a time and then pack two of those bags into a quart size vacuum bag. It is unlikely that a pinhole in the inner bag will continue to poke out through the outer bag. As for oxygen leakage in the bags, the two layers added together provides as good of protection as Mylar bags.

3. I use 100CC oxygen absorbers in each bag I vacuum seal. For the macaroni packages, I use two absorbers because of the higher dead space in those products after vacuuming.

4. I pack the foods in reasonably usable sizes. 2 cups for rice. 1/2 or 1 lb for spaghetti and pastas, etc.

Considering that we're starting with a vacuum anyway, we really don't need much but too much oxygen absorber really won't hurt either. There's about 22% oxygen in air and all the absorber can do is remove that 22%. It cannot remove more than is there so there's no harm in too much - other than the cost.

For those who say that the oxygen absorber creates a vacuum, please keep in mind that they can only create a partial vacuum. They can only remove 22% of the total atmosphere in the bag leaving all the remaining gases. A true vacuum sealer will remove 90%+ of all atmosphere. Toss in a much smaller oxygen absorber because there's much less oxygen, and you will have a good vacuum.

A major drawback with Seal-A-Meal type bags is that they don't block light. Besides ensuring that your storage pantry is kept dark most of the time, there is more to do there. I am going to take my individually packed items and store those in Mylar bags in a bucket. I won't have to vacuum the buckets or add oxygen absorbers. I may or may not seal the Mylar liners; I haven't decided yet.


Oh, I almost forgot. One of the concerns I had about the oxygen absorbers was preventing them from going bad while I was handling them. Because they start absorbing oxygen almost immediately when opened, once you open the pack from the supplier, they are supposed to be used up and sealed with in 20 minutes to an hour, depending on who's recommendation you're listening to. I've read that keeping the unused ones in a Mason jar helps protect them. I think (hope?) that I have come up with a better method.

I knew I was going to use about 50 absorbers in today's sealing session. I opened the package of 100 that I had ordered and immediately vacuum packed 50 in a Seal-A-Meal bag. The 50 I was going to be working with I vacuum packed with that new Reynolds hand vacuum sealer. The Reynolds bags can be resealed multiple times. Every time I took an absorber out to pack in a food package, my wife would re-vacuum the Reynolds bag. That should ensure the absorbers survive the handling and packaging time.

Thanks again for providing a useful preparedness forum,

Dale

[dalepres]

Also, I saw one post where the author said he used his Seal-A-Meal unit for vacuuming Mylar bags. I have not been able to make that work with mine. Without those little ridges in the bag, the rubber seal on the unit completely seals the bag so that no air can be pulled out by the vacuum pump. If you have any tips on how I can make the Seal-A-Meal vacuum sealer work with Mylar bags, I'd love to hear.

Thanks,

Dale