The vacuum sealer seems like a straightforward appliance to operate because you only have to put food inside a vacuum bag, take out the air, and seal the bag. However, when using the vacuum sealer for the first time, it goes beyond pressing the correct buttons. It involves using the appropriate bags, preparing food well, identifying whether certain foods can be vacuum sealed raw or not, and storage of vacuumed food.

Reducing the exposure of food to air is the main goal of vacuum sealing. It may also slow down the oxidation of food and prevent the formation of ice crystals on its surface, which would lead to freezer burn. Vacuum sealing makes food more convenient to divide into portions and store. At home, vacuum sealing can be especially helpful for meats, fish and seafood, meal preparation, bulk purchases and sous vide. Nevertheless, there is one aspect that must be noted at the very beginning – vacuum sealing doesn’t provide sterilization of food and doesn’t make food safe for room temperature storage.

First, Understand Which Type of Vacuum Sealer You Have

To begin with, it is important to understand the type of sealer that you are using since there are two types of machines, namely the external vacuum sealers and the chamber vacuum sealers. There are a few differences between the two, especially in how they operate in terms of air removal process and their suitability for certain foods.

External Vacuum Sealers

External vacuum sealers are the most popular machines for domestic kitchens. This means that you put your food in the vacuum bag, and then you insert the open part into the machine, which draws out the air and seals the bag. They are convenient and can be used by anyone.

Chamber Vacuum Sealers

For chamber vacuum sealers, the whole bag must be inserted into the unit. The machine evacuates the chamber of air before the bag is sealed; hence, this type of vacuum sealer works great with liquid foods such as sauces, marinades, and stocks.

Mostly chamber machines are larger and more costly, hence are recommended when you intend to use them frequently or for large amounts. If all you need to do is portion and freeze your foods, then an external vacuum sealer will be your best choice.

Selecting the Appropriate Bags

Two kinds of machines require different kinds of bags. An external vacuum sealer needs bags that have a texture or embossment, thus allowing the evacuation of the air. Smooth bags work well with chamber vacuum sealers since they are evacuated of air from the chamber.

Be sure to check the requirements of your machine before purchasing the vacuum bags or rolls.

How to Use Vacuum Sealer?

When using the vacuum sealer for the very first time, you do not have to know everything about how it works. Begin with drying your food or a normal meat product and get acquainted with the entire procedure. It involves preparing the food, putting it inside the bag, evacuating the air, sealing the bag, and finally checking the result.

1. Prepare the Food

The food needs to be as fresh and cold as possible with little additional moisture on the surface. The meat and fish can be dried with a paper towel before packing them. If you are going to seal the cooked food, do not do this while the food is hot. First of all, you should let the food cool down properly. The hot food might produce some steam and condensation that will prevent you from sealing it correctly.

It is also important to mention that if you are going to use this appliance for meal preparation, it would be wise to portion your food into meals before packing it.

2. Place the Food Correctly in the Vacuum Bag

When packing the food inside the vacuum bag, do not pack it too full and ensure that it is not in contact with the mouth of the bag. Ensure that there is enough room left above the food for the machine to vacuum all the air out so as to make a secure seal. In case you are using a vacuum roll, cut a reasonable length depending on the quantity of the food that needs to be packed.

3. Be Careful with Bones, Shells and Other Hard or Sharp Objects

If you have to use vacuum packing to pack meat with bones, fish, and some kinds of seafood, be especially careful to ensure that any sharp edges do not tear the bag. Sharp bones like ribs, lamb chops, T-bone steaks, fish bones, or shells can exert pressure on the bag as the air is extracted and create a hole.

While packing such foods, arrange them in a way so that there are no sharp edges facing the inner part of the bag. In case of very large sharp bones, it may be possible to cover the sharp edge using appropriate packaging material.

4. Keep the Bag Opening Clean and Dry

It is very important to ensure that the bag remains clean and dry as well as being flat in order for a proper heat seal to be created. When the bag is filled, you need to check whether water, oil, meat juice, or any food material has been in contact with the opening. The presence of these substances in the sealing part would hinder the process of creating the heat seal. This is especially important when sealing meat or fish that has been marinated or moist.

5. Vacuum and Seal

Using the guidelines for your specific machine, place the open end of the bag into the vacuum and sealing area. After closing the lid, choose the standard Vacuum & Seal setting. Normally, the machine will create a vacuum, tighten the bag against the food, achieve the desired vacuum level and seal the end.

The first time that you use the machine, it is not necessary to try to achieve the maximum vacuum right away. It is more important to become familiar with how the machine and bags work together. For ordinary meat and dry foods, the standard setting is generally sufficient. For foods such as bread or berries that can easily be crushed, a Pulse, Gentle or lower-vacuum setting, if available on your machine, can provide a more controlled result.

6. Check the Seal

When you have finished with vacuuming and sealing your package, you cannot think that your packaging has been done successfully just by the fact that your bag was compressed. A good package must have a continuous heat-seal line, which has no gaps, wrinkles, or any food particles left inside the seal.

If your seal is bad, try to make the seal again around the same place where you made it before. It is especially necessary for those products which are going to be stored for some time.

What Foods Can Be Vacuum Sealed Directly, and Which Need Preparation?

Once you get to know about the basic functioning, it would not take much time for you to recognize that there are some foods that are not supposed to be vacuum sealed in the same manner. Some foods can easily go into the bag for vacuum sealing without any preparation, while there are some foods that require some kind of preparation before they can be vacuum sealed. Some foods need special attention when it comes to storing.

Foods That Can Generally Be Vacuum Sealed Directly

Meat, fish, seafood and most dry goods are well suited to vacuum sealing. Meat can be divided into meal-sized portions, vacuum sealed and then frozen. Fish and seafood are also suitable after excess surface moisture has been removed and sharp bones or shells have been dealt with appropriately. Dry foods such as rice, beans, nuts and coffee are even more straightforward because they contain little free liquid and generally do not create significant problems during the vacuum process. They are also good foods to use when learning how to operate a vacuum sealer for the first time.

Soft or Easily Deformed Foods May Need Additional Preparation

However, some foods that could be vacuum sealed would be affected by a high level of vacuum pressure. Soft foods like berries are very prone to crushing and therefore would need to be frozen before vacuum sealing to maintain their form. Bread and pastries can also be compressed through high levels of vacuum pressure; therefore, pulse, gentle, and lower vacuum pressure should be used on these types of foods. In the case of meats with bones, the main concern is the protection of the bag and not necessarily the vacuum pressure.

Liquids Require Special Care

Liquids are one of the main things to watch when using an external vacuum sealer. If soup, stock, sauces, or large amounts of marinade are placed directly into a bag and vacuum sealed, the liquid can move rapidly towards the opening as the air is removed and may even be drawn into the machine. This could create problems with the seal and possibly compromise the machine.

In case you use an external vacuum sealer for packaging of liquids, it is important that you freeze the liquid first before vacuum sealing it. In case you have regular tasks like packing soups, sauces, or marinades, it would be wise to use a chamber vacuum sealer since the vacuum will occur in the entire chamber and not pull liquid into the machine.

Some Vegetables Need to Be Prepared First

Vegetables should not simply be treated as foods that will automatically last longer once the air has been removed. Some vegetables continue to exchange gases after harvesting, and certain vegetables—particularly cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts—may not be suitable for direct raw vacuum sealing for long-term storage.

For vegetables that are intended for longer-term storage, appropriate preparation such as blanching, cooling or freezing should be carried out according to the particular food before vacuum sealing. This can help maintain better quality during storage.

Proper Treatment of Raw Garlic

The other food that needs special treatment is raw garlic. The machine creates a low oxygen condition, which means vacuum sealing garlic does not guarantee its safety for storage over a longer period of time. For such types of food that have their own safety issues, food safety treatment should be employed instead of depending on vacuum sealing to sterilize or preserve the food.

Why Does a Vacuum-Sealed Bag Sometimes Become Loose Again?

Sometimes you may observe that the package appears properly sealed at the time of packaging but becomes loose after some time. Before assuming that the machine has a problem, examine the package and its seal first.

One common cause is an incomplete seal. Moisture, oil or food particles around the opening, or wrinkles in the sealing area, can create a tiny pathway through which air gradually enters. Punctures in the bag are another possible reason. This problem usually occurs during packaging of meat with bones and shells, as well as other sharp products. The punctures may be quite small and thus hardly visible at first; however, they might let enough air into the bag in the course of time.

In this regard, an effective vacuum pack should not be assessed only based on how tightly sealed the bag has been. In this case, there are three aspects that should be considered: the sealing, the bag integrity, and its capacity to maintain the vacuum.

What Is the Proper Way to Store Foods in Vacuum Seals?

Vacuum sealed foods do not have to be stored at room temperature. Meat, fish, seafood, prepared meals, and other kinds of foods, which usually require storage in the refrigerator or freezer, have to be stored in those appliances regardless of vacuum sealing. Vacuum sealing helps to reduce the contact of foods with air but it is not a replacement for refrigeration or freezing, and will not kill existing bacteria.

As for frozen foods, one of the benefits of vacuum sealing foods is the reduction of the contact with air, which can help to avoid freezer burn while storing frozen foods for a long time period. In the case of everyday home storage, it is more important to concentrate on appropriate portion sizes, correct sealing, and constant temperature storage rather than particular years of storage life. This approach is both more practical and more appropriate for household food storage.

Once You Get Used to It, You’ll Find It’s More Than Just a Food Preservation Tool

However, once you feel at ease with the basics of operation, using a vacuum sealer may become your regular practice while managing your food in the kitchen rather than an instrument that will only help you store leftovers.

This includes dividing meat you bought in large quantities right after purchase, putting each portion in a vacuum bag and freezing it. The same goes for pre-portioning the required amount of any ingredient that you are going to cook for the week and storing it. Vacuum bags may also come in handy for preparing sous vide dishes from meat and fish. For dry goods such as coffee, nuts, rice and beans, vacuum bags or suitable vacuum containers can also be useful depending on how the food is stored and used.

The real benefit is not that everything needs to be vacuum sealed. It is knowing when vacuum sealing makes sense, how to package different foods correctly, when additional preparation is needed, and how to store the sealed food afterwards.

The Key Things to Remember for Your First Use

If you are new to using vacuum sealers, there is no need to remember everything all at once.

You just should bear in mind the fundamentals of food preparation, maintaining a bag opening clean and dry, filling a bag properly, protecting a bag from sharp objects such as bones and shells, not drawing any liquids to an external vacuum sealer, not applying maximum vacuum pressure to tender foods, checking a bag and seal after sealing, and storing the food accordingly in a refrigerator or freezer.

When you will be able to remember these fundamental aspects, you will be prepared for the main things you should remember about using a vacuum sealer. Begin by working with regular pieces of meat and get familiar with the entire process: Preparing a Food → Protecting a Bag from Sharp Objects → Filling a Bag → Cleaning a Bag Opening → Vacuuming → Heat-sealing → Checking → Storing.

After you learn how to do that, you will be able to move step by step to working with seafood, meat with bones, marinated food, and meal prep.