How to Use a Vacuum Sealer?

maxresdefault There are some days when we want to store food to consume for a longer time. The traditional or old way of storing food is by using a refrigerator. Though its freezing system freezes and stores food for a good length of time but there are potential drawbacks. The life of foods like leafy green vegetables and salad items get severely affected by the freezing process. The cold freezing air influences the overall shape, chemistry and taste of the food and such effect is commonly known as freezer burn.

Well, there is a new option for storing food for longer periods of time and that’s also without freezer burn. Yes, its possible now with modern technology. Vacuum sealers can help you achieve this effectively. You would be amazed that there are some food items which can be stored for 2-3 years by using vacuum sealers. The basic mechanism behind the effectiveness of vacuum sealers is its ability to remove air from food surroundings and keep it uncontaminated and stabilized. Since the air is removed so there is less risk of microorganism growth on foods. So when you use a vacuum sealer, you can expect to preserve food for 3 to 4 times longer than the traditional methods. Well in short, using a vacuum sealer makes life easier and fun. Its operating system is also very simple, lets learn how to use a vacuum sealer step by step and preserve foods for longer times:

1. Preparation

For vacuum sealing any food, you must clean it first. Cleaning is quite important for this process. If there is dirt on fresh fruits and vegetables, it can affect their preservation. So to keep the food uncontaminated, you must prepare it for vacuum sealing by proper cleaning. The fruits and vegetables should be scrubbed or peeled off. The extra skin or bones on meat should be trimmed and cleaned before vacuum sealing.

2. Placement of Food

Once you have cleaned and prepared the food for vacuum sealing, place it inside a plastic bag. There are a variety of plastic bags available in the market. However, some vacuum sealers require specific brands of bags. So make sure you are placing the food in an appropriate plastic bag.

3. Positioning the Bag

After placing the food in an appropriate plastic bag, get the vacuum sealer in operating position. Put the open end of the plastic bag in the sealer. Make sure you are positioning the bag right.

4. Start the Sealer

Though, many vacuum sealers start automatically by censors when the bag is placed inside them, but some sealer machines need pushing a button to get started. Once the sealer starts, it seals by removing the air from plastic bag and bag shrinks.

5. Let it Process

You must stay patient during the process of sealing. Hurrying to pull out the plastic bag from sealer would result in mess. Vacuum sealers are smart machines, once the plastic bag is sealed and packed properly, it is released. You don’t have to rush the process, instead let the vacuum sealer complete the process and stop automatically.

6. Finally Store

Finally remove the sealed packets and store in a suitable place like fridge, freezer or a pantry. Make sure you store the packets in a place, where they don’t get punctured.

While using a vacuum sealer you should be cautious and read the instructions carefully. Also, food safety guidelines are a must read, since food gets expired and spoiled after a certain time period. So avoid consuming food blindly even if its vacuum sealed.

Here are some great tips about using vacuum sealers, you might find these useful:

Remember, vacuum sealing won’t keep your food from spoiling. So avoid storing raw meat packages in a closet, because it will spoil. However, you can store such packages in a freezer and they won’t get freezer burn.
You might already know that vacuum sealers work by removing air from the food bag. So there is always a good chance that the crumbs or liquid get into the vacuum sealer and obviously its not good for your sealer. So its ideal to freeze the liquid food before vacuum sealing and use filters with powdered foods. Paper towel and coffee filter can do the trick here.
The plastic bags used for storing foods have a strong material but even then they can get punctured by sharp substances. So if you are storing food which is sharp like dry fruits or any non-food items, wrap them in a soft material like paper towels. It will keep the plastic bag from puncturing.
Some users make a serious mistake by making their own bags. You should avoid doing this, since bags are custom made for each model of sealers. So in case, bag doesn’t match the model you will likely end up finding your food spoiled just when you need it the most. So be careful!
When you fill the bag, generally its recommended not to overfill it. Leaving few inches of space is always ideal, since it gives you a chance to reseal the bag. For example if you leave space of 4 inches then you will be able to reseal it 4 more times.
While sealing the bag, also make sure to keep it smooth. If there are any wrinkles, air will be trapped inside and spoil the food.
Generally vacuum sealers remove all the air from the bags but dropping in a desiccant packet is always a good idea.
For using a vacuum sealer properly you must take care of it. After using it each time clean it and store it in a proper place. By doing this you can take benefit of your investment for many years.
If you suspect that the packet is not sealed properly, you should never open it. Instead, put another seal closer to food and your food won’t spoil.

Well, you see its quite simple to use a vacuum sealer to preserve your food for a good length of time. However, apart from its usual operation many people want to know about many other uses of vacuum sealers.

For all those readers who have got a vacuum sealer and now considering getting creative with it, read on:

You can use vacuum sealers to store documents. It will protect the documents from moisture and keep the quality of paper and its content fresh.
The cracker bags and chips bags can also be resealed by using vacuum sealers. Sometimes we or our kids want to consume the crackers later but since the packet has been opened so the quality of taste gets poor due to air. So to avoid this consider resealing cracker packets.
You can buy supplies like herbs, spices, baking supplies, etc. and seal them in mylar bags.
If you have opened a bottle of wine or vinegar and its not finished, you can reseal it to use at anytime later.
Well, here is an unconventional use for vacuum sealer. You can use it to store guns and ammunition. This way the guns won’t get rusty and function properly.
Precious metals or jewelry sets made of silver can be stored by using vacuum sealers. Since air and moisture acts fast on silver/metal and corrode its lustrous surface. The seal will protect them against tarnishing and keep the original shine for longer periods of time.
Store band-aids for emergency use. Its often experienced by many people that band-aids loose the adhesive quality overtime. So if you have kids and they often get small bruises during the play then it’s a great idea to store band-aids by using vacuum sealers. The adhesive quality will be as high as the freshly bought band-aids and you won’t have to rush to buy these.
If you love camping or traveling often to hill stations then you can preserve your cell phones, watches, compasses and maps by using vacuum sealing system. So when you need these supplies on a trip, these will not be wet and will function fully.
You can also store a spare set of cutlery items for a long period. Cutlery often get rusted if its made of metal or silver. So storing them inside a sealed package is a great idea. But make sure you use any soft paper for wrapping sharp items like knives and forks so that they don’t puncture the package.
Some people also creatively use vacuum sealers to protect their luggage against any liquid leaks.

So you see there is no limit to being creative when it comes to using a vacuum sealer. We hope these few creative uses must have triggered your mind to employ it in your own creative ideas to preserve any items of information. As a matter of fact, once you started to incorporate vacuum sealer into your life, you would start being obsessive about it. You would wish, if you had got it earlier, life could be so easy and fun.