Oxygen Absorbers For Food And Pharmaceutical Packaging
ATCO Oxygen Absorbers irreversibly absorb the oxygen inside a package or bulk container headspace, reducing it from 20.9% to less than 0.1%. Available in a variety of formats, this active technology not only absorbs the oxygen present at the time of packing, but also the oxygen that continues to permeate the packaging, throughout the shelf life of the product.
ATCO Oxygen Scavenging Sachets And Labels For Extended Shelf Life
Gas flushing removes the oxygen once. What removes the oxygen that keeps arriving? No film is a perfect barrier, so oxygen permeates steadily through the pack wall for the whole of a product's life. An oxygen absorber stays active inside the pack and keeps scavenging, which is why absorbers and flushing solve genuinely different problems.
ATCO oxygen absorbers reduce headspace oxygen from the 20.9% found in air to below 0.1%, and hold it there. They are available as sachets and self-adhesive labels in formats suited to automatic or hand application.
How Oxygen Absorbers Extend Shelf Life
What Is An Oxygen Absorber?
An oxygen absorber is an active packaging component that chemically and irreversibly binds oxygen inside a sealed pack. Unlike a gas flush, which sets the atmosphere at the moment of sealing, an absorber keeps working across the whole shelf life, taking up both the oxygen present at packing and the oxygen that permeates the packaging afterwards. For oxygen-sensitive products this is often the difference between a shelf life that survives the supply chain and one that does not. The ATCO range reduces headspace oxygen from the 20.9% found in air to below 0.1%, and holds it there for as long as the product is in the pack.
What A Flush Alone Cannot Do
No packaging film is a perfect barrier, so oxygen permeates steadily through the pack wall for the entire life of the product. A gas flush addresses only the oxygen present at the moment of sealing; it cannot touch what arrives afterwards. An absorber solves the second half of that problem, which is why absorbers and flushing are complementary rather than interchangeable — many producers use both, and producers without MAP equipment at all can use an absorber alone to get much of the same benefit without capital investment in flushing machinery.
Who Uses Oxygen Absorbers, And Why
The range spans bakery, snacks, coffee, cured meats, dairy, dried goods and pharmaceuticals — anywhere fats and oils go rancid, mould grows, or colour and flavour fade under oxidation. It also removes the need for some preservatives, which supports clean label reformulation. Self-adhesive versions apply by hand or automatically at line speed, and capacities are matched to pack volume, film barrier and target shelf life rather than sold as one size fits all.
Key Points
- Reduces headspace oxygen from 20.9% to below 0.1%
- Continues absorbing permeating oxygen throughout shelf life
- Irreversible absorption, so oxygen is not released back into the pack
- Prevents rancidity, mould growth, and colour and flavour loss
- Sachet and self-adhesive label formats
- Suitable for hand or automatic application
- Capacities matched to pack volume, film barrier and target shelf life
- Supports clean label reformulation by reducing preservative reliance
- Used in bakery, snacks, coffee, cured meats, dairy, dried goods and pharmaceuticals
- Works with or without modified atmosphere packaging
FAQs About Oxygen Absorbers And Active Packaging
How is an oxygen absorber different from gas flushing?
Gas flushing sets the atmosphere once, at the moment of sealing. An oxygen absorber keeps working afterwards, taking up the oxygen that permeates through the film across the whole shelf life. Many products benefit from both.
How low can oxygen levels go?
ATCO absorbers reduce headspace oxygen from the 20.9% present in air to below 0.1%, and hold it at that level for the life of the product.
Which products benefit most?
Anything where oxygen is the limiting factor: high-fat products prone to rancidity such as nuts and snacks, moist products prone to mould such as bread and cake, colour and aroma sensitive products such as coffee and cured meats, and oxygen-sensitive pharmaceutical and nutraceutical formulations.
How do I choose the right size of absorber?
It depends on the headspace volume, the oxygen permeability of your packaging film and the shelf life you need. Undersizing is the common mistake, because an absorber that saturates part way through shelf life stops protecting the product. We size against your actual pack.
Can absorbers be applied automatically on the line?
Yes. Self-adhesive formats are designed for both hand and automatic application, so they can be integrated into an existing line rather than added as a manual step.
Are oxygen absorbers food safe?
The range is manufactured for direct food contact applications. We can supply the relevant documentation for your due diligence and customer audits.
