You NEED to know about (and use) oxygen absorbers. They are an absolute “must.” Why? What do oxygen absorbers do? They absorb air and moisture inside our vacuum-sealed packages. Do NOT miss this step!
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00:07
Hello and welcome to Easy Food Dehydrating, the show that teaches you how to safely dehydrate and store fresh (or frozen) fruits and vegetables, along with cooked meats. I’m your host, Susan Gast.
00:23
In today’s episode, I’ll discuss the relevance of oxygen absorbers, how to use them, what sizes you need - and what’s in them!
00:33
Hey there. Susan here with Episode 3, and it's called Life Support for Bags, Bins and Buckets. Now then, what am I talking about - life support?
00:43
Well, if you want to save the life of your dehydrated food, you must use oxygen absorbers. "What are they?" you're probably wondering. They are little packets that you insert into your vacuum sealed, er vacuum sealer bags, prior to vacuum sealing, when they have your dehydrated food in them and you're getting ready to seal the contents. They actually draw out any air and moisture leftover.
01:12
I have four sizes that I use all the time: a 50cc oxygen absorber - I use those in my small half-pint Mason jars when I have small items like dehydrated sliced garlic.
01:28
The 100cc oxygen absorbers are used in quart-sized bags vacuum-sealer bags and the quart-sized Mason jars.
01:38
The 300cc are used in the Mylar bags prior to sealing. Remember, we do not draw the air out of these 10" by 14" Mylar bags. They are protective, waterproof, and somewhat airtight and they keep the contents out of direct light.
01:59
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02:46
The 2000cc oxygen absorbers are massive, and I only use these in the big airtight bins and buckets - really the buckets - because it's very hard to find airtight bins because most of the bins, the rectangular bins, have handles on them. And any time you have handles, there's definitely air that's going to get out. So skip putting the 2000cc oxygen absorbers inside of a bin.
03:17
I need to tell you when you get your oxygen absorbers, you highly likely will buy them in a packet of a hundred. And you don't want to be opening it every minute that you want to take just one oxygen absorber out, right? So what I do as soon as I get them, first of all, you check to see what color the little pill is inside. "What little pill," you're thinking?
03:40
Well, people that ship these include - in other words - the manufacturers - include a little pill. That pill inside must be pink. It means the oxygen absorbers in that bag are good, they're perfect. However, if you see that your pill's gone a bit purple, purply blue, then don't open the bag and return it to the manufacturer for a replacement. Don't open it.
04:11
So let's go back to when you get 100 oxygen absorbers in a bag. What I do then is get five of the vacuum sealer bags and I'll quickly put 20 oxygen absorbers in each bag. I'll then [vacuum] seal it. First of all, I seal it right at the top. Why? Well, when I need to go in and just take one, two, or three oxygen absorbers out, I cut off the top and then I immediately vacuum seal it again. So you can, like, probably vacuum seal it two, three, or four times before that bag is too short. But by then, you probably will have used up the whole 20 oxygen absorbers in that packet.
04:56
Being the inquisitive type of person, I couldn't help but cut open one of the oxygen absorber packets when they arrived. This was when I first started, over ten years ago, and I was amazed. It contains iron filings, clay, and salt. The clay element produces moisture, and the combination of salt then activates the iron filings and that absorbs the oxygen. Isn't that amazing? This process begins as soon as the oxygen absorber packet is exposed. Right? So as soon as you get it out of the bag, boom. It starts to go to work. But I thought that was amazing. They’re quite heavy, actually. And that explains it... with the iron filings inside.
05:44
I did a video, once, of me cutting it open, but of course, I can't find it, which is a shame. But anyway, you couldn't see me doing it on a podcast, anyway. Moot issue. Right?
05:57
So I hope you enjoyed today's episode about oxygen absorbers and why we need them. We must have them to use inside the bags to keep the foods dry. We need to prevent mold and any food spoilage, stuff like that. Well, until next time. Have a great day and I'll see you soon. One more thing. If you enjoyed this episode, please feel free to share it with like-minded friends, you know - people who might think benefit from this and enjoy it. Thank you very much. Bye now.
06:38
Closing:
Thanks for listening to the Easy Food Dehydrating podcast. Visit EasyFoodDehydrating.com for much more information on how to dehydrate food and the best way to safely store it.