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By AaronBurns
#5671
Sodium bicarbonate is the main ingredient in soda crackers that helps soak up moisture in sugar, salt, parmasian cheese and other products that might clump when moisture condenses and creates a clumping or solidifying problem. We can make sodium bicarbonate packets to put in with the products or solid discs that fit the bottom of the containers. Much better than shaking the container or wasting the product by thowing it out because it becomes useless when solidified. And it is a terrible waste of time to try and break up clumps with a knife and shaking the can doesn't always work. You would eventually have to throw it out and sealing it within plastic containers or storage containers of some kind doesn't stop the clumping process. You can save money and trouble with this new sodium bicarbonate packet or disc.

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By Steve
#5845
This won't work because products like salt or sugar are densly packed. There is no circulation of air and because sugar and salt are anhydrous too, there is no way the mositure will travel through the package to the other side where the baking powder (or sodium bicarbonate) package is. Any moisture-stopper needs to be mingled in with the product to be effective, that's why many people mix rice grains into salt which works pretty well.
By AaronBurns
#5945
I was talking about flour, salt, or sugar.
Over here we just put a saltine cracker into the bin then pour in the product.
This works always but, wears off after about 3 months.
My Sodium Bicarbonate is just a derivative of the active ingredient in soda crackers alllready proven to work for the last couple hundred years here in America.
My product would last for years to keep the product dry.
The reason it works is because the problem is condensation coming in not liquid in the flour or whatever that comes with it.
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By Steve
#5959
Hm... my instincts tell me that this may not be the entire story. :-? (But as always, maybe I'm wrong. ;-) ) Any explanation why a cracker or baking powder disk on one side of the package would keep the salt on the other side from clumping?
By AaronBurns
#5960
The cracker obsorbs the moisture before it can get to the sugar or flour.
It is better, faster, at taking all moisture out of the air.
No matter where you put the cracker, the moisture gets dryed up first by the cracker because the other materials are not neccessarily all that obsorbant in the first place but, we need a moisture grabber that lasts longer than a cracker and that would be my product.
Basically the moisture seeks the driest material first.
Physics I guess?
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By Steve
#6016
Ok, I've done some research on this and here is how it works: like I said, the anhydrous disc will only take the moisture from the surrounding salt/sugar crumbs. But then those "dryer" crumbs will take some of the moisture of their "damper" neighbors, and so on. All in all, moisture can travel through an entire packet towards something that is very anhydrous. Of course, we're not talking about real wetness, just a tiny bit of moisture.
#6021
You see, the product, be it sugar or flour or what ever is protected by the box or container it is in so, the problem is the moisture getting into it in the first palce so what you do is place the product in and then you place the discs on top where the moisture will first appear at the opening or top of the container.
You were thinking of placing them within the product which will work as well but, if you place one inside the material it has an effect but, if you place the discs or porous packets on top, it takes in the moisture before it can get to the product.
Using them on top is more effective but, used within and on top is the best way. In this case, two is better than one.
By AaronBurns
#6022
The flour or sugar products are generally dry when we buy them in the first place. It is keeping them this way that is the problem.
What we are trying to protect them from is the Air. The moisture comes from our air and enters into the product through places that comes in contact with the air like the open top or the plastic lids and that is where we want to stop the moisture. We have more success by places my porous packets on top but, no matter how they are used they should work.
In America and in Great Britian the latitude is similar so we both have about the same weather since I am personally located near the coastal areas like yourself. In England you can't escape that fact. The moisture level and rain is about the same. I guess the people on the equator need the opposite product, one that wets everything down. Ha! :-D
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