This patent was developed to remove the residual oxygen in headspace of metallic packaging. The first patent of an absorber was given in 1938 in Finland. In the case of gas scavengers, reactive compounds are either contained in individual sachets or stickers associated to the packaging material or directly incorporated into the packaging material ( Charles et al., 2006). The most used active packaging technologies for food are those developed to scavenge oxygen and were first commercialized in the late 1970s by Japan’s Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company (Ageless ®). Active packaging includes oxygen and ethylene scavengers, carbon dioxide scavengers and emitters, humidity controllers, flavor emitters or absorbers and films incorporated with antimicrobial and antioxidant agents ( Santiago-Silva et al., 2009). One of the most attractive subjects is the active packaging concept. In this context, research and developments in the food packaging area have been conducted, aiming to eliminate residual O 2. The use of oxygen scavenging packaging materials means that oxygen dissolved in the food, or present initially in the headspace, can potentially be reduced to levels much lower than those achievable by modified atmosphere packaging ( Zerdin et al., 2003). However, for many foods, the levels of residual oxygen that can be achieved by regular (MAP) technologies are too high for maintaining the desired quality and for achieving the sought shelf-life ( Damaj et al., 2009). Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is often used as an alternative to reduce the O 2 inside food packaging. However, the oxygen that permeates from the outside environment into the package through the packaging material cannot be removed by this method ( Byun et al., 2011). Vacuum packaging has been widely used to eliminate oxygen in the package prior to sealing.

Oxygen (O 2) presence in food packages is mainly due to failures in the packaging process, such as mixture of gases containing oxygen residues, or inefficient vacuum. Therefore, in order to preserve these products, oxygen is often excluded. In fact, in many cases food deterioration is caused by oxidation reactions or by the presence of spoilage aerobic microorganisms.

Many foods are very sensitive for oxygen, which is responsible for the deterioration of many products either directly or indirectly.

Scavengers definition