One of the most important causes for medium term food storage problems is oxidation: home-made fruit juices start to look strange, the apple pulp goes brown, butter gets a funny taste, the tomato pulp turns to dark red jelly, and so on.
So why not create an airtight container which de-oxigenates the air caught inside? The first thought that comes to *my* mind is a "clean" flame (i.e. not burning a match which leaves carbon monoxide and other nasty chemicals behind), but I'm sure a chemist could come up with a much more elegant solution for this. So, any chemists around? :-)-- gutza, Apr 17 2005 Vacuum Sealers http://www.eshop.ms...pcId=9558&catId=214 [Laimak, Apr 17 2005] GasPak Jar http://dentistry.ou...MI_8351/GasPak.html [tokyofist, Apr 18 2005] Oxygen absorbers http://en.wikipedia...iki/Oxygen_absorber [Veho, Mar 21 2009] I like this idea, but I'm leaving it neutral until I see an implementation method better than flame.-- disbomber, Apr 17 2005 Doesn't fire need oxygen to survive? Bad Science?
Although this may be used to grow anaerobic bactieria.-- finrod, Apr 17 2005 I think there are devices for recorking wine that inject nitrogen into the bottle - similar in principle to this.
There are also little cartridges one can use for the culture of anaerobic bacteria which react away all the oxygen in a container. I think they are some sort of sulfur compund. Probably more thorough than a flame, which will go out before consuming all oxygen.-- bungston, Apr 18 2005 [bungston] is correct, although i'm not sure about the sulfur. the way i recall it, the cartridges or packets give off hydrogen when water is added, which in turn reacts with oxygen in the presence of a metal catalyst. i'll try and find a link.-- tokyofist, Apr 18 2005 So beer will keep indefinitely?-- reensure, Apr 18 2005 This is an issue for house-painters. At least I think that's where I read about preserving paint in cans by filling them with various gasses. There were several suggestions, including carefully filling the can with butane from a lighter.
Me, I'd drop in a chunk of dry ice and let the container fill with CO2.-- baconbrain, Apr 18 2005 Ugh. Freezer burn. I'm with the painters ... keepers of the bowels immortal.-- reensure, Apr 19 2005 There's a sachet in some products that removes the Oxygen - usually in tins of peanuts. It usually says "Do not eat" on the side.
I can only assume that Oxygen is poisonous and should not be eaten.-- Ling, Apr 19 2005 // There's a sachet in some products that removes the Oxygen // - usually in tins of peanuts. It usually says "Do not eat" on the side.
Erm. Those packets are not about oxygen, they're about moisture. Inside them are silica gel crystals that trap water molecules. They react with oxygen only inasmuch as oxygen is part of the H2O molecules the crystals bind to.-- jutta, Mar 20 2009 Whoa, nobody here knows about anaerobic reactors? I have boxes and boxes of little "just add water" packets that will take all the air in a sealed container (even a scary large one) and emit CO2 and H2. Used in many scientific setups to do exactly as described. A flame, by the way, will collapse before all the O2 is gone, but these reactors get damn near all of it, if given enough time.-- WcW, Mar 21 2009 [jutta], see link. [Ling] was referring to those. Unfortunately, this means the idea is well baked.-- Veho, Mar 21 2009 Apparently it's been around for 15 years, though it was new to me.-- ldischler, Mar 21 2009 random, halfbakery