Waste Less Food with One of These Top Vacuum Sealers
Best Food Vacuum Sealer
It is said that a third of all food in the United States is discarded, making food waste a crisis that needs to be addressed. On the home front, food storage can be challenging. It’s so easy to be wasteful if you’ve only got time to shop once a week, if that.
Trying to keep your produce and other food from spoiling and being exposed to oxygen is often time-consuming and sometimes isn’t effective. Enter vacuum sealer machines. You’ve probably heard of them if you don’t already have one. Whoever invented these deserves a medal.
So what exactly are vacuum sealers and what are the best food vacuum sealers? Read on to find out.
How Vacuum Sealers Work
Vacuum sealer machines work by sucking out the air from a plastic bag or other container, and sealing it so that no air can get in. You end up with your produce or even your leftovers vacuum packed, and therefore safe from going off for a bit longer than would otherwise be the case.
But what else can vacuum sealers do for you?
They Reduce Waste
Instead of throwing away leftovers after a meal, vacuum sealing them and either freezing or refrigerating them for later consumption will reduce your household waste.
They Help Keep Your Fridge Clean
Vacuum packing your food can help keep your fridge or freezer neat and tidy, which will mean less time searching for the ingredient or meal you want.
They Save You Money
Not only can you preserve small amounts of leftover food or produce to use at a later date, vacuum sealing means you can buy in bulk, which usually means saving money.
They Reduce Spoilage
As soon as produce is exposed to oxygen in the air, especially if it has been cut, it starts to dehydrate or develop freezer burn. Vacuum sealing can prevent this from happening.
They Increase Food Safety
When foods are protected from oxygen, the chance of harmful molds or bacteria growing on them is reduced, protecting you from illness.
They Extend Food Shelf Life
When you vacuum seal food, it is preserved for three to five times longer than foods kept in bags or plastic containers. In terms of freezing, vacuum sealed food can be safely frozen for two to three years, compared with just six to 12 months if stored differently.
In the fridge, vacuum sealed foods will last, on average, for one to two weeks, compared with one to three days when stored otherwise.
They Easily Store Liquids
Before vacuum sealing liquids such as juices and soups, place them into the freezer until they have hardened a bit. Then put the semi-frozen liquid into a sealing bag, making sure to leave enough space at the top for sealing. You could also seal a jar for liquid storage.
Before You Buy a Vacuum Sealer
So, what should you look for in a vacuum sealer for your kitchen?
- Good online reviews
- A reputable brand
- The ability to seal heavy products
- Rapid air removal
- Reasonable price
- Freely-available reusables
- A variety of features
- A good instruction manual
The Best Place to Buy Vacuum Sealers
The perfect place for getting a vacuum sealer is through online stores because they're cheaper than physical stores. Online shops can cut their prices because they have fewer employees and can afford to rent cheaper facilities.
Flexible budgets are why online shops can offer free/discounted shipping to customers and this will decrease the amount of money you spend on gas. Fixed delivery times also mean you don't have to stand in lines or browse crowded store aisles.
Another benefit of online shopping is that products get reviewed by other customers and this saves you from buying counterfeit goods.
The Best Vacuum Sealers Online
NutriChef PKVS18BK
The NutriChef PKVS18BK is fully automatic — all you have to do is plug it in. To use it you can maneuver the simple control panel with the help of soft-key digital buttons. This vacuum sealer also has two dry/wet sealing options and you're guided through these processes by LED indicators.
The PKVS18BK has a 100-watt suction element with power to drain 12 liters in a minute. It also comes with a 3.3-foot cord that can take up to 120 volts of power including the wiring in the sealer.
It comes in two colors: silver (which can look good in a home or industrial kitchen) and black (suitable for home and office kitchens).
If you buy this vacuum sealer on Amazon, it'll come with a wine cork, an air suction hose, a roll of uncut vacuum bags (7.8 x 7.9 inches) and five medium-sized vacuum bags (7.8 x 11.8 inches).
Weston Pro-2300
The Weston Pro-2300, a stainless-steel vacuum sealer, is built to withstand use in almost all kinds of conditions and this makes it perfect for home and industrial use. It has 935 watts of power, making it one of the most powerful sealers for home use. This also means that it can seal items two to 10 times faster than usual vacuum sealers.
Unlike normal sealers, this one can work both automatically and manually. This helps when you want to have control over how much power is used for each seal. You can do a manual seal by using the control buttons, or you could just press start for an automatic one. This Pro-2300 also has LED indicators that'll guide you through each function.
FoodSaver FM 3920
The FoodSaver FM 3920 can cut freezer bags to any size you need. It also stores these bags under its hood to prevent cluttering your kitchen. Cutting bags to your required sizes means you can store more goods in your freezer, which is a good thing if you buy groceries in bulk. This machine is compatible with eight to 11-inch freezer bags.
The FM 3920 has an LED display that keeps you updated during the vacuum sealing processes. There are two processes, one for sealing dry items and the other for wet/moist items. These processes and the machine itself comply with UL and ETL standards as certified by NRTLs (Nationally Recognized Test Laboratories).
