Deep inside many refrigerators sits a small orange box with one of its top corners torn off. Sometimes a bowl with white powder is placed. Of course, it was (probably) baking soda and was put there to absorb food odors in the fridge.
If you do this, be sure that your parents, grandparents, or other people in your life believe in this age-old method of minimizing bad odors and instruct you to do the same. There is a possibility that Maybe you too have enjoyed a refrigerator that always smells fresh.
Or maybe you’ve wondered why your refrigerator isn’t as effective as baking soda and keeps smelling no matter how often you change boxes and bowls. If so, it’s not (necessarily) you or your food.Baking soda simply doesn’t have the ability to solve the problem all smells. Here’s what you should know:
How baking soda works in the refrigerator
Bad odors in your refrigerator come from a variety of molecular compounds. Dr. Joe Schwartz of Commentary by McGill University. Volatile fatty acids are released when food spoils or spoils, but bases such as baking soda should be able to neutralize them on contact and eliminate odors in the process.
For example, rancid butter produces butyric acid, which gives off a foul odor. When reacting with sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda), it forms odorless, non-volatile sodium butyrate. free.
Why Baking Soda in the Refrigerator Doesn’t Work
If baking soda always works for you, that’s great. Preparations are complete. But for others, there must be a few different reasons why you’re still plagued by bad refrigerator odors despite having refrigerator boxes and dishes on your shelves.
it’s been there for too long
Baking soda is effective in reducing mild to moderate food odors, but over time it will begin to develop odors from previously neutralized volatile fatty acids.This is why we recommend replacing old baking soda with new. every 3 months.
Interestingly, Arm & Hammer recently updated guidanceAnd now, based on “ongoing research efforts,” it recommends replacing the bin of baking soda in your fridge every 30 days instead of every 3 months. Of course, that means more baking soda sales, but in any case, if the box or dish in your fridge has been sitting out for more than three months, it’s likely that the baking soda isn’t working and the odor is coming out. It may be getting worse.
Baking soda is powerless against certain odors
Baking soda may help with many mild to moderate food odors, but not all unpleasant refrigerator odors come from food. Schwartz explains. The mixture of bacteria and household mold commonly found in refrigerators and freezers can produce a variety of unpleasant-smelling volatile acids that baking soda cannot neutralize, no matter how fresh it is.
Not enough surface area exposed
Baking soda works for individual sodium bicarbonate crystals On contact with malodorous volatile fatty acids, it neutralizes them. So if he opens one little corner of the baking soda box, it won’t do much.
How to get rid of refrigerator odors
Baking soda may not be a magical odor eliminator, but there are ways to make it more effective.
expose more surface area
Instead of ripping open the corners of a box or tearing off the center of a box designed to be put in a refrigerator or freezer, pour at least a cup of baking soda into a shallow dish. Remember to replace it at least every 3 months.
clean up regularly
If your refrigerator is particularly smelly, remove any rotten or leaking liquids or powders. Remove any leftover mold as soon as possible and clean the shelves and drawers where they were stored. Address these issues right away, and even if you don’t get to that point, clean your fridge thoroughly and regularly to keep it smelling fresh.
use activated carbon
add 1 cup of activated carbon Place powder or pellets in a shallow dish and replace monthly. You can do this instead of or in addition to baking soda.
