No way to tell by looking at an individual piece... sealed in a bag they should include a pink pill, which turns blue when exposed to air. That doesn't mean the absorber is bad, just that it's been exposed (it should be pink until YOU open the bag). Best idea is to use them all once you open a pack, as quickly as possible. Store them in a vacuum bag or jar in the meantime. Buying in smaller quantity bags is a safe bet.
When usable, the iron powder inside can be felt to be loose like salt. When they are spent, the iron powder becomes a hard cake of rust. Pretty easy to tell by feel. The things get warm within seconds of exposure to o2 so use them quickly after removing them from the sealed package they came in.
I store mine in a canning jar after removing them from the sealed pack.
Thanks for the input everyone. After opening them I put them in a mason jar with plastic wrap over the opening. I just wondered if the lettering on the packaging changed color or not.
Since they remove O2, they draw a bit of a vacuum. There's a good chance that they drew fresh air past the plastic wrap and they're spent. You can test one by putting it in a sealed ziplock and seeing if it draw a vacuum. If it doesn't, toss them. Personally, stored like that I think I'd toss them just to make sure. They could be partially spent and still draw a bit of vacuum in a ziplock.
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