I have made very little of my own "prepared bait" over the years, chunked or ground from meat or from fish stock. However, I am thinking about expanding my horizons in that regard.

Sodium benzoate is the preferred preservative for nearly all considerations, usually at a given rate per unit of stock in the bait preparation process. I have also come to understand that it is also used by many in small quantities for preserving certain stored animal glands. I assume that most use the powdered form, readily available from most trapping supply houses.

After doing a little research on this chemical today, I discovered that it comes in powder, granular, flake and liquid form at chemical supply sources for the food industry - all the same stuff, chemically.

I assume most use the powdered form for their bait/lure making purposes, even with home brewed "bait solution."

Does anyone use SB in the liquid form? The reason that I ask is that I found a source that sells a food grade of it by the gallon - cheap.

Your considerations and thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Jonathan

I'm no bait making expert by no means but I would think the liquid SB should work fine being food grade.....you have to mix the powder form of it with warm water to mix anyway...correct?

That was my immediate thought as well. I just wondered if anyone used it basically pre-mixed, or "straight," already in solution.

Jonathan

Jonathan, could you post the URL of the site for the liquid form of SB? ..... Thanks Garry-

I have never even heard of anything except powder. However, being you say its cheap I will automatically assume that a liquid form would be diluted like a tincture would be compared to the real thing. How would one know how much to add to a given product in liquid form? When using tinctures with odors one can adjust with thier nose but with an odorless substance it would be like a pig in a poke. Again, I am going to assume that the powder has already been dissolved into water or something odorless, the same thing one can do themselves with the powder and then they will know the correct amount went into the water and product. Asa

Jonathan, just a thought here but I would find out the substance used to dilute the Sodium Benzonate is, if it is water or saline wouldn't it freeze up on you?

Asa summed it up pretty good ... his thoughts are about what came to mind when I think liquid SB ... yes, I have seen liquid SB offered but always opted for dry

NO ... it is not madatory to mix SB with water to use ... personally I never do ... I have no intrest in incorporating water into anything I formulate ... maybe it's just a ME thing ?

I dissolve my powdered SB in the urine that goes in to the bait formula.

Liquid SB most likely is an amount of SB powder, flakes or granules dissolved in water. Without knowing the ratio, it would be hard to figure out how much without some testing.

I have used the powder and granules. I like dissolving in water so that it will penetrate the meat faster. If adding in powder or granule state, the SB has to disolve in the meat juices, or other liquid in the solution before it can penetrate the meat. Straight solid form SB will not do anything, until it is dissolved. Salt is the same way. When salting meat, the salt in solid form dissolves in the meat juices and penetrates, whereas a brine solution penetrates immediately.

yep, agreed ... if'n ya use SB dry ... it needs to be added accordingly ... for exactly the reason you say ... it reacts slower

the granules and lil "sprinkles" looking form are what I generally use ... and they are still run through a food processor to achieve more of a powder consistency (no need for this really, except a quirky preference )

whether disolving or not you shouldn't expect it to instantly "stop" ... it will still take time ... which is usually noticed by the "calming" odor ... again maybe it's just another ME thing

Yepper, and the larger the pieces of meat, the longer it takes to fully penetrate. Finely ground meat will stabilize more rapidly than chunk meat.

Paul, Thank you for your nod and notion. If appropriate, without "advertising," may I share my findings with you?

This source is in your own state. This is my response to a trapper friend from Ohio, close to my age at 67 with thoughts in the overview of my unquiet mind in the quandary of investigation with random thoughts who sent me a PM about ink = "Where can you get this liquid stuff?"

This was my response:

Here is the link to the liquid sodium benzoate site in NC:

http://www.1-800-shaved-ice.com/c-sod-ben.html

I don't know how cost effective this would be. A gallon of concentrate (8#) is $8.50, and shipping to my zip code, only about 300 miles east of you is $13!!! Total for a gallon to me is $21.75

With all things considered, it might be worth it in the long run. Not sure - have to put the pencil to it over the powder. It is going to be diluted anyway. They claim a gallon of liquid SB will preserve a 128 gallons of syrup for human consumption.

Jonathan