Effect of relative humidity and temperature on absorption kinetics of two types of oxygen scavengers for packaged food

Abstract

SummaryTo investigate the effect of temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the absorption kinetics of self‐activated and moisture‐activated O2 scavengers for packaged food, kinetic parameters of each O2 scavenger were evaluated at 43%, 75% or 100% RH and at 10, 25 and 40 °C respectively. Absorption kinetics was well described by a first‐order reaction with an Arrhenius type behaviour. For moisture‐activated O2 scavengers, a proper high RH was needed to ensure a high O2 absorption capacity, as average O2 absorption capacity was 3.82 mL at 43% RH and 43.40 mL at 75% RH. When the temperature increased, O2 absorption rate constant ascended from 10 °C to 40 °C on an average of 0.153 and 0.306 h−1 in moisture‐activated and self‐activated O2 scavengers respectively. We could take the effect of temperature and RH into account when we chose different types of iron‐based O2 scavengers for packaged food.