Testing an Oxygen Absorber After Being USED for 7 Years

A viewer asked me to test an oxygen absorber that had been used for 7 years in a bag of apple slices. Bottom line - it was still working just fine. As long as oxygen absorbers are in containers that don't allow oxygen to get in, they should last pretty much forever.
Links to more oxygen absorber videos:
Is Your Oxygen Absorber Doing it's Job? - www.youtube.co...
Short Version - Simple Test: Using a Pickle Jar and a Soda Bottle to Test Oxygen Absorbers - • Short Version - Simple...
Oxygen Absorber Testing (For our freeze dried food) - • Oxygen Absorber Testin...
Vacuum Sealing Jars in the Freeze Dryer - How Much Air is Left? Too Much! - • Vacuum Sealing Jars in...
Want to support this channel? Buy me a coffee :-) www.buymeacoff...
AFFILIATE LINKS & REFERRALS - I earn from qualifying purchases from the links provided
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As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases from the links provided. By clicking on the links, you can explore the products and tools I use.
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PackFreshUSA
We have been buying oxygen absorbers and 7 mil Mylar bags from PackFreshUSA since early 2018. During all that time (1000's of bag and oxygen absorbers, and about 6 year before before we added this affiliate link) we have been happy with the products and service we have received from them.
I earn from qualifying purchases from the links provided. - packfreshusa.c...
Use the discount code "SchoolReports5" to get 10% off your first purchase when using the link.
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Harvest Right - If you are thinking of buying a freeze dryer, please consider supporting us by purchasing through our link. It helps us and costs you nothing!
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Before buying a freeze dryer, perhaps research to find out more about the downside of the machine; some people have problems with their machine and it's big and heavy and hard to return!
When trying to decide what to freeze dry you can start by asking why.
Start by asking yourself this question. Why are you freeze drying food? Knowing this should help you decide what you should freeze dry first.
I'm freeze drying because:
Just to freeze dry leftovers?
You want to make your own food for camping/backpacking?
For if/when the SHTF?
For a short term emergency?
You have your own garden and want to freeze dry the food?
You love Costco but don't have a family of 6?
You are good at finding the food sales but only have 1 freezer?
When you cook homemade chili just for yourself you make 10 gallons? Because you have 3 full freezers and are worried about power outages?
If I knew then what I know now, I would have freeze dried things in a different order. Or maybe not, because I started freeze drying because we had 3 full freezers, I was thinking of getting another one, and I decided I should buy a walk-in freezer instead. I started looking into walk-ins and realized they were expensive to buy (even used ones) AND expensive to own and operate. Then I found out Harvest Right was making home sized freeze dryers. One of my first thoughts was "I like Mountain House!" I have used their food for backpacking almost 45 years and we even kept some in our travel trailer, for just in case.
Freeze dried food will stay fresh for many years and be ready and waiting when you need it.
We do videos showing how we are using our Harvest Right Freeze Dryer to freeze dry food for long term storage. (We have the medium size machine that we got in August of 2017) We talk about how to load and unload the freeze dryer, how to know if the food is dry, is it better to freeze dry raw food or cooked food, and do a few taste tests. Freeze dried food is also great for prepping or just for camping and snacking!

[@SchoolReports]

Links to more oxygen absorber videos: Is Your Oxygen Absorber Doing it's Job? - kzbin.info-HIdI58qRtQ?si=O3rLL9ylFdR9q4vR Short Version - Simple Test: Using a Pickle Jar and a Soda Bottle to Test Oxygen Absorbers - kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHSumWOdqcxlbs0si=IW4KSm-brBDz5RxL Oxygen Absorber Testing (For our freeze dried food) - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmSTmWmircuWfsUsi=u4hCGk3OvqLH3NcZ Vacuum Sealing Jars in the Freeze Dryer - How Much Air is Left? Too Much! - kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHvUdHuPpN6feqcsi=oojpQWO_wmEPfXwn Want to support this channel? Buy me a coffee :-) www.buymeacoffee.com/DanZm AFFILIATE LINKS & REFERRALS - I earn from qualifying purchases from the links provided ─────────────── As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases from the links provided. By clicking on the links, you can explore the products and tools I use. www.amazon.com/shop/schoolreports --------------------------------------------------- PackFreshUSA We have been buying oxygen absorbers and 7 mil Mylar bags from PackFreshUSA since early 2018. During all that time (1000's of bag and oxygen absorbers, and about 6 year before before we added this affiliate link) we have been happy with the products and service we have received from them. I earn from qualifying purchases from the links provided. - packfreshusa.com/?rfsn=7877576.a54e2a Use the discount code "SchoolReports5" to get 10% off your first purchase when using the link. --------------------------------------------------- Harvest Right - If you are thinking of buying a freeze dryer, please consider supporting us by purchasing through our link. It helps us and costs you nothing! affiliates.harvestright.com/995.html ─────────────── Before buying a freeze dryer, perhaps research to find out more about the downside of the machine; some people have problems with their machine and it's big and heavy and hard to return!

[@marcfruchtman9473]

That's really great to hear how well the oxygen absorber performed, even after 7 years... thanks for the video. If we had a way to add a nitrogen absorber we could generate fairly good vacuum, hehe.

[@SchoolReports]

Thanks! Interesting idea. Nitrogen is so non-reactive, I don't know if a simple, room temperature nitrogen absorber could be a thing. 🤔 The only time I tend to vacuum the bags is if space is an issue. One of the reasons I don't bother vacuuming the bags is because I don't want to increase the pressure difference between the outside of the bag and the inside. (Plus, food crushing:) If we could make the inside of the bag an absolute vacuum, there would be almost 15 psi trying to push air into the bag. (I know there is still a partial pressure issue with the oxygen deficit inside the bag)

[@marcfruchtman9473]

@@SchoolReports I can see how not having a complete vacuum might help protect some contents... for example, a pressurized potato chips bag has less issue with broken chips. If you get some sharp surfaced freeze dried foods, I suppose it is theoretically possible for a crimp to be more susceptible to the risk of a hole. Tho, I am not sure if that happens very often. And with freeze dried foods, if you did have a hole for "years" you would notice a problem with the food once you opened the bag. Also, if you had a hole, you would probably notice that the bag was no longer squished, so it would be similar to how the pressure lids work to indicate loss of vacuum. I would probably still add an oxygen absorber tho.

[@SchoolReports]

@@marcfruchtman9473 All I can say is that I agree with everything you said there! With a vacuumed bag (or any other container) the oxygen absorber can be very small. A vacuumed one liter container might be fine with a 50 cc absorber, or even smaller.

[@cherylb.9766]

It was a great video and is reassuring to know they are capable of working after 7 years! Thank you

[@SchoolReports]

Thanks for watching and for taking the time to comment!

[@AddictOfLearning]

Okay, I am super interested in pizza making day!

[@buckonono7996]

Great results on your test. Makes me feel good about our food storage. Was distracted by your delicious looking pizzas. Were they for freeze drying?

[@SchoolReports]

Thanks! These pizzas were just for the freezer for quick meals. We are going to be doing a batch for freeze drying later. The biggest difference with the ones for freeze drying is that we make them with a thinner crust (3 oz of dough instead of 5.5 oz for each 8" crust) and slightly less toppings so they are less likely to fall off when dry. We think of them as pizza crackers.

[@buckonono7996]

@@SchoolReports Please do a video on those both ways. I'm very interested!😁

[@AddictOfLearning]

Haha same! I was quite interested in the test but I also got distracted by pizzas

[@buckonono7996]

@@AddictOfLearning They looked delicious!

[@iselasmith4526]

Thanks, that is what I call very useful information.

[@SchoolReports]

Thanks!

[@shaunnichols4664]

Have you tried any tests on bags that didn't shrink after being sealed? I have some like that and they freak me out. Good idea testing one out of each bag. Looking to see what containers I have to set something like that up for piece of mind.

[@SchoolReports]

That shouldn't happen. My sister once had one bag out of a freeze dryer batch (1 out of 10 or 15 bags?) that didn't shrink like the others, so she re-bagged it in a new bag with a new absorber and it shrunk down like all the others. It must have been a bad bag, a bad seal, or a bad oxygen absorber. I don't know what else it could have been. I wish I had thought to test the absorber at the time, but I didn't. If it ever happens again I'll try to remember to do testing. All bags should get about 21% smaller as the oxygen is absorbed, but with some bags it might be a little hard to notice it depending on how it's packed. With the absorbers we used 7 years ago, it could even take a few days. With the one we get now it only takes a few hours to a day. If I had one that didn't get smaller, I would assume that something failed. We don't test one absorber per bag, we test about 3 per box of 1000 absorbers; one when the box is new, one about half through the box, and one when it's almost empty. (We usually buy the ones that are packed 10 absorbers in a bag, 100 bags in a box)

[@shaunnichols4664]

@@SchoolReports To be fair, I mainly use pint bags and squish as much air out as I can. So it might not be as noticeable as the larger bags. I found a container for testing, just need to mark it up and start testing. Looking forward to finally finding out.

[@SchoolReports]

@@shaunnichols4664 Yes, under those circumstances it may be hard to see! This is the video I made show the details of what we do. (I was pretty proud with my "Step One" getting the container right at the beginning:) Oxygen Absorber Testing (For our freeze dried food) - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmSTmWmircuWfsUsi=cJj3rye3_KCQfGap Also this one shows a very simple method (I will probably start doing it this way more often) - Short Version - Simple Test: Using a Pickle Jar and a Soda Bottle to Test Oxygen Absorbers - kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHSumWOdqcxlbs0si=ZnQdC2ATuzKFFp6E

[@historyteacher4402]

Great video!!!

[@locutus8496]

Have you done any research and sourcing on the following? Any links you can provide appreciated: 1. Rosemary extract for preventing oil/fat rancidity. Where to find the right extract in the right concentration, how to use it and how much to use. 2. Where to find O2 absorbers in case quantities but in packs of 10. 3. Where to find the gusseted single and double meal pouches for backpacking meals in bulk. I've only found them at Top Mylar, but their pricing is rather high. Pack Fresh USA doesn't sell these.

[@SchoolReports]

Sorry, I'm not going be of much help for you. 1) I'm not a food scientist (not close:) and I've been having a hard time understanding everything they have in the papers (organic chemistry is not something I know), but I have found a good number of papers. The more I read, the more of it that sinks in. Here are a few, and at least one has some amounts they used during testing - www.mdpi.com/2305-6320/5/3/98 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10572867/pdf/foods-12-03583.pdf dpointernational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Short-Review-of-Extracts-of-Rosemary-as-Food-Additive.pdf www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926669015305434 2) We've always been buying ours in 10 packs from PackFreshUSA. 300cc Oxygen Absorbers in 10-Packs (1000) - Wholesale - packfreshusa.com/300cc-oxygen-absorbers-in-10-packs-1000-wholesale/ 3) I've never looked for those bags. I've found bags that work for us, and I'd hate to switch and have to start testing from scratch again.

[@brianschindler1511]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@stuntman762]

Excellent test! Thank you for doing this. Very valuable information, and reassures that both the oxygen absorbers and bags are doing their jobs despite years of inactivity (or extremely little activity if you factor in the OTR of the bag). This answered my question of will an oxygen absorber continue to “scavenge” the measly 1cc or less of oxygen that makes it through the bag each year even after years of storage. You’re testing proves that they’re very much alive 👍🏼

[@SchoolReports]

Thanks. I'll be starting the "dry" test you suggested soon using the OA from a bag from 9-20-17. I probably won't video it, but I'll let you know have it works out.

[@stuntman762]

@@SchoolReports Sounds good 👍🏼

[@jerryfarr3175]

Great video. I finally got my medium harvest right a few weeks ago. I have done some candy for the kids and fruit for the wife. Can't wait to get to building my long-term storage. Dumb question i quess after this great video, but some people say that if you dont use an unopened pack of o2 absorbers they expire 6 months to a year. That doesn't sound right to me. I have some pack fresh still sealed from two years ago. Would they still be good to use? Dot is still pink.

[@SchoolReports]

Thanks! That's in no way a dumb question. (I've seen dumb questions, and that's not what they look like:) My question to someone saying that a pack of unopened oxygen absorbers would go bad in just 6 months would be - How? Seriously, "they" are saying that it will work for 30 years in the Mylar bag with the food in it, but only 6 months unused, in the factory bag. The bags that the OA's are shipped in may not be as good of an oxygen barrier as the metallized Mylar, but it also has a very small surface area. Oxygen transmission rate is calculated on an amount of oxygen, over time, multiplied by the surface area of the film (bag size). With the bags the OA's are shipped in, there is a tiny amount of surface, with a (relative) huge amount of oxygen absorbing capacity. Even if the OA's absorbing capacity dropped by 10% (which would huge, considering the small surface area of the bags), they would still be capable of absorbing far more than the rated amount. I would just give one a test. Bottom line: I have not measured a loss (with my crude measuring) of capacity with the older unused, sealed OA packs. In this videos test I used a used one, I have some 6+ year old unused, sealed ones that look the same as the one tested here. I'll run another on one of those and if they don't still do as well I'll let you know. We've just never had any of this brand test anything lower than 1 1/2 to 2 times the cc rating. But that's why we keep doing the testing multiple times on every shipment of 1000 we get. - Something could go wrong, and I don't like to take chances.

[@tokyofamily8536]

now test a vacuum sealer

[@SchoolReports]

In what way?