Survival UK Forums

Make Your Own Oxygen Absorber for Food Storage

never knew it was so easy!!

what you need

Steel Wool as fine as you can find (do not use soap pads )
table Salt
Paper towels
Stapler


Depending on the container size, take a wad of steel wool and lay it on a open paper towel. Sprinkle table salt over the steel wool and work it into the fibers. Then fold the towel over and staple it into an envelope shape. Done

The salt’s acidity activates corrosion of the fine steel wool and the rusting of the steel absorbs oxygen in the container.

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthr...p?t=191991

awesome! i didnt know it was that easy either, cheers tigs

some of the American Sites say that you should put an opened sarnie bag with a couple of spoonfulls of salt in the bottom of your food grade bucket, put your stuff on top then pack it to the top with DRY ICE...apparently the ice is supposed to remove the oxygen??

huh, but dry ice is just carbon dioxide in its solid form

but im looking into it to see if theres anything to it, but i really dont think there is right now, only things i can think of would be that as it "melts" it displaces the oxygen and lowers the concentration making it less likely to react with your food, other things are that it could react with oxygen free radicals to make 2 carbon monoxide particles

but it would almost certainly put your container under pressure, which could run the risk of it not being airtight any longer

anyway im looking for some actual scientific evidence of it and why it works xD

Actually it' dead easy to use 'dry ice' or carbon dioxide as a preservative. You simply displace the oxygen, let the container vent for a few minutes and then seal. Carbon dioxide has been used as a food preservative for over 70 years.

BTW, Disposable handwarmers make good oxygen absorbers too.

so it was just an oxygen displacer thanks TOF

hi, i dont know where to get dry ice from,? but could you use a co2 fire extingisher to displace the
air before sealing a container? or am i just being silly.