Does baking soda really eliminate refrigerator odors?

[stpauler]

Here’s the original:
Does baking soda really eliminate refrigerator odors?
The SDSAB replied:

No, it really works. The miracle of baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is in its ability to neutralize pH levels. That is, it takes strong acids and buffers them (it was popularly used as an antacid before the Tums and Rolaids people took over the market), and, while slightly on the base side itself, also stabilizes the pH of highly basic solutions. You got a bad odor? It’s almost always the result of strong acids (in the fridge, often lactic acids) or bases (found in in spoiled meats).

The Department of Energy Office of Science says:

Hoping to not disappoint you, baking soda does not eliminate odors very well at all. As a wash solution, it is mildly alkaline and can serve to cut grease when dumped down a drain. However, crystal Drano is much more effective – and far more dangerous to use. The popular “open box of Arm & Hammer in the refrigerator” simply provides an adsorbent material that can soak up odors – but not very effectively. For example, if some of the odoriferous materials floating around in the refrigerator are acidic, the alkaline baking soda can absorb and neutralize the acid. Even in that regard, it is not all that effective because, as the powder in the box contacts water vapor, it tends to crust over an lose a great deal of its already limited surface activity. It all sounds quite nice, but it does not work very well. Far better would be a canister of activated charcoal because it can indeed adsorb vapors that contact the charcoal.

I’m not a scientist nor have I taken the time and investigated this claim specifically myself. But the SDSAB’s answer that it really “eliminates odors” seems highly suspect. Unless the baking soda was being poured directly onto the source, I can’t imagine it could eliminate the odors.

[Joey_P]

At work we have a three door freezer (think of those big rows of freezers at the grocery store) that we keep seafood in. I keep about 10 boxes of A&H baking soda in them. The kind with the flaps the peel off, otherwise it’s a mess when people dump them over. I tend to forget about them. After a few months, I’ll notice that every time someone opens the freezer I get a big whiff of seafood and I put new ones in and forget about them again for a few months.

I really don’t think it’s psychological since I totally forget about them between the time I put them in and the time I can smell the freezer again. It’s not that I go and check it every few days or weeks.

[moriah]

Oh, yes, it absorbs odor, but the Dept. of Science is kind of right that a big pile in a box isn’t going to be effective. How does the baking soda at the bottom of the box help get rid of odors?

I tend to spread the baking soda in a dish in the fridge. Smell gone in a day. It’s all about increasing area of contact, which is why activated charcoal also works.