food vacuum sealer

[snugglebug14]

Do any of you use a vacuum sealer for freezing your food? I always try to squeeze all the air our when I freeze meat or leftovers, but inevitably it always ends up freezer burnt : If you do have/use a vacuum sealer, what is your opinion of it and which one do you have? Thanks so much!!

[Drummer's Wife]

We have a Food Saver, and like it.

The only downside is buying the 'bags', but depending on the brand you buy, they aren't much more than the freezer ziplocks.

[Naturalyst]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

We have a Food Saver, and like it.

:

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

The only downside is buying the 'bags', but depending on the brand you buy, they aren't much more than the freezer ziplocks.

You can buy continuous rolls for the Food Saver. I know Costco sells rolls. Using a continuous roll keeps waste to a minimum.

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by Naturalyst

:



You can buy continuous rolls for the Food Saver. I know Costco sells rolls. Using a continuous roll keeps waste to a minimum.

oh, yeah. I think that's what we have. big rolls of the plastic stuff that you have to melt the edges each time? I just meant that it's a downside b/c you have to buy them and they aren't available everywhere. But I still think they aren't much more than buying ziplock style freezer bags.

[helianthus]

We have a food saver, and love it. This is only my second year gardening, and I'm trying to produce enough to be able to save some for winter. So far we've frozen lots of raspberries and some carrots with the food saver. It works very well! Last year DH used it to vacuum pack some toilet paper to mail to me in India. It worked great! That TP was vacuum packed so well that it was solid as a rock when I got it.

[Pinoikoi]

I have a foodsaver. I am pretty good at using it. I think the ability to "reuse the bags" is a bit of a misnomer, though.. when you cut them open, the edge sort of rolls, so getting it to line up again for resealing is pretty much not going to happen.

[newbymom05]

Curious here, can you buy or are your bags labeled PVC/phythalate/BPA free?

[Pinoikoi]

Originally Posted by newbymom05

Curious here, can you buy or are your bags labeled PVC/phythalate/BPA free?

http://www.foodsaver.com/Support.aspx?id=sfaq

I looked- and all I could find was "polyethylene" and "nylon" as materials.. there is a contact us button on the bottom though. I would try that.

What are FoodSaver® Bags made of?
They are made of polyethylene (a type of plastic) with an outer layer of nylon for added strength and rigidity.

ETA: Consumer reports says that polyethylene is a bpa free alternative material.. I doubt BPA is in nylon.. (although admittedly I didn't look).. I found several blogs that said "I contacted foodsaver, and they said they are bpa free, but haven't decided to put it on their site yet" kinds of things, but I always wonder if blogs are very reliable.. so this is the best I can do

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...ls-plastic.htm

# For baby bottles, glass or BPA-free plastics such as polyethylene are the safest choices, as Consumer Reports has advised in the past.

# For those who reuse water bottles frequently and want to avoid BPA, consider polyethylene, stainless steel, or aluminum with BPA-free liners.

Additionally, you can use foodsavers to seal mason jars, although I am not sure if they are then freezable or not.

[HappiLeigh]

I use the Food Saver and like it. I also love using it with mason jars, but not for freezing--just like to keep shredded cheese nice in the fridge, etc.

[newbymom05]

Originally Posted by Pinoikoi

http://www.foodsaver.com/Support.aspx?id=sfaq

I looked- and all I could find was "polyethylene" and "nylon" as materials.. there is a contact us button on the bottom though. I would try that.



ETA: Consumer reports says that polyethylene is a bpa free alternative material.. I doubt BPA is in nylon.. (although admittedly I didn't look).. I found several blogs that said "I contacted foodsaver, and they said they are bpa free, but haven't decided to put it on their site yet" kinds of things, but I always wonder if blogs are very reliable.. so this is the best I can do

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...ls-plastic.htm



Additionally, you can use foodsavers to seal mason jars, although I am not sure if they are then freezable or not.

Thanks, avoiding bad plastics is my new obsession.

[annethcz]

I have a FoodSaver. The only thing I regularly use it for is whole chickens (we raise and butcher our own). Last year I bought a Rival Seal-a-meal vacuum sealer and it didn't work well for our purposes; I returned it after attempting to use it on butchering day. It can be hard to seal bags that have moist foods in them (like fresh chicken ).