How to vacuum seal food for wise food storage:
Did you know that when you vacuum seal food, it stays fresh 5 times longer than other conventional storage methods? Because vacuum sealing removes the air from the container (reducing oxidation), foods such as beef, poultry, fish and even vegetables can have an extended freezer life– up to 3 years!
I've laid out a quick explanation of how to go about using your vacuum sealer to safely and quickly store your food.
Let's get started!
Supplies you need to vacuum seal your food:
- vacuum sealer (I use the Foodsaver)
- vacuum sealing bags
- vacuum sealing roll – (to make my own bags)
- scissors
- food for storage
Step 1:
I'm going to use my vacuum sealer to store my chocolate chia survival bars as well as some beef jerky I made recently.
The chocolate chia survivor bars are small, so I'm going to use one of the small vacuum sealing bags.
Step 2:
Make sure you have your vacuum sealer plugged in. Grab your bag of food and place the open end so the edge of the bag is lies in between the two foam sealing pads. This is where the suction happens so don't push the edge of the bag all the way into the machine.
Step 3:
Lock it down! Press the tab on the right down until it clicks. For the FoodSaver I'm using, you'll have to press fairly hard.
Step 4:
Pull the tab up to unlock your bag and check the seal to make sure there aren't any wrinkles or holes.
Now I'm going to use the roll to make a custom sized bag for the beef jerky.
Step 1:
Lay the roll out along side the beef jerky to measure how long your bag will be. You will want to leave 3 inches from the end of the jerky to the edge of the bag.
Step 2:
You now have two open ends, so before you put anything inside, you'll want to seal one end.
Step 3:
Place the beef jerky inside the bag you just made. Get ready to vacuum seal it!
Some helpful hints:
- Avoid overfilling the bags in order to ensure a suction and seal.
- If you are sealing items with sharp edges, wrap the food/item in a cloth first (paper towels work too), then seal.
- If you are wanting to store fruits and vegetables, you'll need to pre-freeze the fruits and blanch the vegetables before you vacuum seal.
Want to make homemade survival bars like ours? Try these:
Chocolate Chia Homemade Survival Bars | RecipeHomemade Survival Bars | Recipe | Instructions
Want to make homemade beef jerky?
How to Make Beef Jerky | Recipe | Instructions
