Desiccant Packs

You must have bought a new electronic gadget or brought some food packets. When you open the package box, what do you find? A small bag falling out of the box. You begin to wonder what is this small packet and what is its use? Well, you have found desiccant packs that have now become a common packaging feature. Let us go into the details of desiccant packs in the following article.

What are Desiccant Packs?
Desiccant bags contain desiccant. These are substances that help remove moisture in the surrounding air. So, when a product is sealed in an air tight package, it helps create a low humid environment within the package. Excessive moisture in air, condensation as well as odors are problems faced by many manufacturers, distributors as well as dealers. This moisture is harmful for their products as it can cause corrosion, mold, mildew and fungal or bacterial contamination of foods. This leads to damage to product or food spoilage leading to loss in revenue. Therefore, many industries now use desiccant packs that help absorb moisture from air. It helps lower humidity and thus preventing corrosion and mold. Also, desiccant bags help reduce odors and spread fragrances in the package. What's more, these are reusable desiccant packs that can be rejuvenated easily. So, even the consumers getting these reusable desiccant packs with their products can use them for their personal needs. You can rejuvenate these reusable desiccant packs by placing them in a microwave oven for 2 to 4 minutes. If you do not have a microwave, do not worry. Just place these desiccant bags in sunlight for a day, and it will be as good as new.

Types of Desiccant Packs
There are different types of desiccant packs available to be used for different purposes. There are desiccant packs for foods, electronics, clothes, etc. Let us have a look at the different desiccant bags and their uses.

Silica Gel
One of the most commonly found desiccant packs is the silica gel desiccant. It has a high crush strength as well as high porosity. It can absorb moisture at temperature below 25°C and relative humidity above 40%. Silica gel is chemically insert, non-corrosive and non-toxic, therefore used in desiccant packs for food.

Indicating Silica Gel
The indicating silica gel is similar to the normal silica gel desiccant. The only difference is it is not chemically inert as it tends to change color to indicate moisture content.

Molecular Sieve
Molecular sieve is a type of desiccant that has great capacity to absorb water. It is better than silica as well as clay desiccant. It absorbs water uniformly and can even absorb organic odor molecules.

Montmorillonite
Montmorillonite is a naturally occurring mineral used to control moisture content in air. It does not swell after absorbed with moisture and can easily take up and give up moisture.

Activated Charcoal
The activated charcoal is used to absorb organic molecules and sulfur containing compounds. It helps in removing volatile molecules and odor from surroundings.

Desiccant Packs for Food
We shall see a bit more about reusable desiccant packs for food. This is because one needs to know if they are safe to be used for storing grains, beans and other food products. Silica gel desiccant packs for foods are FDA approved for food and drug products. So you can use them to store dried foods, grains, beans, etc. You can even place desiccant bags in containers and not worry about any reaction or toxicity.

As you can see, desiccant packs are very useful in protecting products like cameras, mobile phones, electronic gadgets and even food from moisture in the air. They even absorb odor from organic products and leave the product smelling fresh. You can use the desiccant packs at home to store cash in safes, gun safe, ammo and weapon storage, prevent tarnish on gold and silver products, etc. You can place them in your tool box to prevent rust, corrosion, oxidation, etc. of tools. These reusable desiccant packs makes them viable for years on end. If your reusable desiccant pack is not performing as it should, bring home a new one that will work fine for a really long time like the one before.