You need food vacuum sealer bags for sealing and storing your dehydrated food. We can purchase them in varying sizes, and thicknesses... so make sure you purchase ones that are at least 3-mil thick.
See two of the most-often used sizes of food vacuum-sealer bags in the Amazon images below.
* As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. The price you pay doesn't increase.
Look closely at your vacuum-sealer bag: One side of the bag is smooth, and the other side is 'textured'. This is to enable the food-vacuum-sealer to draw the air out.
And no, it doesn't matter which side up they go on the vacuum sealer machine!
Make sure you select good food vacuum sealer bags for storing your dehydrated food—SAFELY! Thin ones can puncture easily.
Any thinner than 3-mil ... you may get some brittle foods puncturing your bags after the vacuuming! And we don't want that to happen.
The size of vacuum-sealer bags I use are 6" x 10".
Mylar Bags Are Smooth... So What? Read On!
This was brought to my attention by my Realtor-friend, Bev Miller, who was trying so hard to vacuum her Mylar bags.
She discovered it won't work because the Mylar bags' surface is SMOOTH! She's so smart!
* As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. The price you pay doesn't increase.
NOTE:
We don’t VACUUM
the Mylar bags, but we DO use the sealing element
of the Food Sealer
machine to seal the Mylar bags.
The Mylar bags are simply containers of
two, three, or four
of our vacuum-sealed packages.
As mentioned earlier, we need the textured side of the food vacuum sealer bags to allow the air to be drawn out! :-) Without these tiny textured bumps, it's pretty much impossible to draw the air out.
When the bag has been vacuumed, it's still being held tightly inside the FoodSaver machine, so don't worry about air making its way back inside the bag. The oxygen absorber will draw out any smidgens of 'stray' oxygen still lingering inside the bag.
DON'T forget to add your oxygen absorber in the bag prior to drawing the air out!
I order the food vacuum sealer bags we use over the internet and shipped right to our door—via Amazon.
Click on the images at the very top of this page; or you can purchase your bags in your local superstore.
This just in from Nancy in NC:
I get the 11 inch by 16 feet rolls and cut the material to make the size bag I want. I order directly from foodsaver.com and get the GAMESAVER rolls, individual rolls or the 6-pack. I asked the thickness and was told 4 mil, then I said they ought to include that bit of information in the item description. Right now, the bags are listed under "heavy duty". ALSO: See vacuum-sealer rolls
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. The price you pay doesn't increase.
To aid in filling the bags, I use a canning funnel.
They are relatively inexpensive and come in very handy whether you are filling your plastic vacuum bags or the mason jars.
See the two side-by-side photos above, showing how best to grasp the bag onto the funnel base. With a bit of practice, you'll soon get the hang of it! It makes filling your jars and bags "a breeze."
NOTE: After vacuuming our bags,
I pull out a 2ft length (approx.) of plastic wrap.
I then wrap the vacuum-sealed package in it!
Follow the
optional plastic wrap guide here.
This note is from Paul Bee, a regular visitor to our site. He'd written via the Facebook comments to say that he uses his vacuum food sealer to seal up his chips! I had to ask how he does that without crushing the chips?!
He said this "I don't actually vacuum out the air, just use the seal-function-only of the food vacuum sealer. After eating my chips, I cut the bag to just about half, eliminating as much of the air as possible. I then place the bag edge on the heat seal and seal it up! My chips will stay fresh for up to 45 days!"
Apparently, Paul is one who can contain himself around potato chips. A bag wouldn't last more than a few hours in our household! LOL
Susan Gast began Easy Food Dehydrating in December 2010. Read Susan's story of what sparked her interest in all things related to "food dehydrating."
She is featured on Mother Earth News blog, and on Solo Build It (SBI) who host this site. Read her first SBI interview, and her second SBI interview.
Since 1980, Susan's involvement in publishing - in one form or another - led her to create a "review site" of products related to the publishing industry. Visit ePubTechReviews today, also hosted by Solo Build It. Susan also runs her namesake site SusanGast.com on Solo Build It that showcases the books she has written since 2010.
Do you want to send Susan a quick message? Visit her contact page here. She'd love to hear from you!