Oxygen-Absorbing Packets Help Troops

FRED O. WILLIAMS / The Buffalo News (NY) 9apr03

If an army marches on its stomach, a company in West Seneca is playing a key role in national security. Multisorb Technologies produces mold-fighting packaging that helps the military's "meals, ready-to-eat" live up to their name.

The company's oxygen-absorbing packets are slipped alongside soldiers' M&M cookies, chicken sandwiches, waffles and - still in development - the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Company president Mark Celmer said he taste-tested the army's vacuum-packed pound cake, protected by Multisorb's product, and gave it a thumbs-up.

"These are light-years ahead of the old K-rations," he said.

The war in Iraq has put the locally owned company on a war footing of its own. Many of its 300 employees are working weekends at the factory on Harlem Road, in order to meet stepped-up orders from the Pentagon.

Multisorb is producing a record 20 million packets a month, about two-thirds of them for the Defense Department, Celmer said.

About the size of a sugar packet, the "Fresh Pax" contains about two grams of iron powder, plus moistening agents. The iron absorbs oxygen from the air and traps it as ferric oxide, or rust.

"This is putting the rusting process to good use," said William J. Calvo, Multisorb's principal scientist in charge of research and development. The reaction can reduce the oxygen in a sealed packet to one part in 10,000.

Keeping oxygen away from food protects it from bacteria and insect larvae and helps prevent mold, Calvo said. That in turn has allowed bread and other starchy foods to be used that would otherwise be too delicate for the military's vacuum-packed menu. "Meals, ready-to-eat" (MREs) are supposed to last for three years without refrigeration, or six months in temperatures above 100 degrees.

Multisorb's production volume for the military has about doubled because of the war with Iraq and, before that, the military action in Afghanistan, Celmer said. The packets are shipped to contractors in Colorado and Texas who assemble the MREs.

The demand comes not only from U.S. troops, but also for the Pentagon's humanitarian relief efforts. Celmer said he likes the thought that his company's products might be helping win friends for the U.S. overseas.

"A lot of MREs were air-dropped into Afghanistan," Celmer said. "We anticipate even when the military action is over (in Iraq), we'll be feeding a lot of liberated Iraqi citizens."

Multisorb was founded in 1961 by local inventor John S. Cullen. Its chief products are water-absorbing "desiccants" used in auto air conditioners and in all kinds of packaging, from electronics to pharmaceuticals and diet supplements.

Oxygen-absorbing packets were introduced by the company in the U.S. in 1984. Civilians might encounter Multisorb's Fresh Pax inside supermarket packages of lunchmeat, pepperoni and bacon bits, where they fight discoloration and "refrigerator taste."

Multisorb's annual sales are about $34 million, and the company expects a lift of about 8 percent from increased military orders, as troops consume field rations, Celmer said. Packets for MREs represent about 10 percent of its overall business.

Multisorb has long worked with the Defense Department's Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., the developer of military food technology, Celmer said. Before the MRE was developed, the company worked on preserving powdered juices.

Under development now is a military-grade peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Easy to assemble in the kitchen, the PB&J is a challenging food for field use, according to Multisorb, because of the peanut butter's tendency to get crumbly while the bread hardens.

Advances in packaging have helped the military offer more conventional foods to troops the field, said Lauri Kline, a project leader at the Natick center.

But technology doesn't determine what foods go on the menu, she said. "We develop new ration items because soldiers request them," Kline said.

source: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030409/1022865.asp 10apr03