Food Preservation Container
Testing Materials
We chose to test silica gel packets to see if they provide a better reduction in humidity compared to calcium chloride. Silica gel packets provide a better desiccant source for our communities because they are "rechargeable", less likely to tear, and hypothetically easier to remove from flour if they were to spill. Our results show that silica gel is a less effective desiccant; however, we believe silica gel is more appropriate for our community based on their reusability. Our testing process is described in the animation below.
Animation of Design
An animation of the design of our food storage solution, putting it on youtube was the only way to get the video on wix.
We got a box and filled the bottom with water to simulated a 100% humidity environment. We then filled three plastic bags with 100 g of flour as a constant. One bag had no dessicant, one bag had one desiccant packet, and one bag contained two silica gel desiccant packets. We put a humidity logger to log the humidity in each bag. We then put the bags in the box and taped the top to try and keep in the most humidity. We would open the bags for 30 minutes a day to simulate people opening the box to get food and humidity getting in. This can also test the desiccant. Later we ended up putting the box in a glove bag so we could still manipulate the bags while not letting all the humidity out when the box would be opened so the flour bags could be opened.
Decision Matrix
Our decision matrix outlines the aspects we feel are the most important to our project. The single silica gel packet only had a slightly higher score than the two silica gel packets. However, both scored at least two point higher than the previously used desiccant.
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Using the Glove Bag
The glove bag was used to ensure 100% or near 100% humidity was in the environment for this experiment. The bag had two built-in gloves to open the Ziploc flour bags for 30 minutes daily to avoid any loss of humidity during the week.