You probably know that a vacuum food sealer can save you money by keeping food fresher for longer.
But did you know that a vacuum food sealer can keep food fresh for up to 5 times longer than non-vacuum sealed food? (And longer than that in a freezer?) And that it can pay for itself in less than a year in less wasted food?
In this article you'll learn about all the ways a food vacuum sealer can save you money.
1. Buying in Bulk
Buying in bulk is what most people think of when they think of a vacuum food sealer. For good reason: a vacuum sealer makes buying in bulk a no-brainer.
Save a small fortune buying meat in bulk, vacuum sealing, and freezing.
The larger the quantity, the cheaper the food. For meat in particular, the price per pound can be less than half what you'd pay for a small package of meat in the grocery store.
Bonus: Buying in bulk can reduce your carbon footprint, as well, because even though you're using plastic bags to freeze your food, the food has less packaging up front. Plus you're making fewer trips to the store. Plus, if you have a sous vide machine, you can cook food right in the freezer bag, especially if you season before freezing.
2. Easy Freezer-to-Table Meals
You can pop vacuum bags straight into a sous vide pot right from the freezer--to thaw or cook.
Not only can you freeze bulk food purchases for long-term use, you can also freeze whole meals.
This means that you can make several meals at once, freeze them, and use them as needed, for those nights you don't want to cook, are sick, or want to make meal prep easier for less-culinarily-gifted family members. (And again, a sous vide setup makes heating frozen meals incredibly easy.)
This works really well for soups, stews, and casseroles in particular.
Sure, you can do this with zip-top bags and Tupperware, but the frozen food won't last nearly as long. So you can wait to eat the meals until people actually want them (and don't view them as leftovers).
3. Extending the Life of Leftovers
No more of this with a vacuum food sealer.
When you have actual leftovers (not enough to keep for another meal), a vacuum food sealer makes it possible to keep them in the fridge up to a week longer than you can in other storage containers. Keeping the air out keeps the freshness and moisture in, so leftovers keep longer and taste better in vacuum-sealed containers.
This frees you from the decision to "eat or throw" within a few days. And, it keeps leftovers as good as the day you made them.
This is especially true for foods that typically aren't good warmed over (steak, for example): a vacuum bag makes a huge difference in the flavor, keeping it fresher and tasting more like a non-leftover.
If you've never liked the taste of reheated beef, try vacuum-sealing it. You won't be able to tell it's leftovers.
4. Extending the Life of Dry Goods
Did you know that dry beans cost about a fifth of canned beans?
You can use vacuum food sealers to extend the life of pantry goods like:
- Flour
- Sugar
- Pasta
- Rice
- Dry beans
- Corn meal
- Oatmeal
- Nuts
- Baking products (baking soda, baking powder, prepared baking mixes, etc.)
- Dry pudding and jello mixes
- Coffee (both ground and whole bean)...
...and pretty much any other dry pantry item you can think of.
So you can now buy pantry goods in bulk, too. This can add up to a lot of savings!
Buying dry goods in bulk can cost up to 80% less than grocery store prices.
5. Extending the Life of Spices
Spices will last much longer if stored in a vacuum-sealed container.
Spices are a dry pantry good, too, but they deserve their own category because spices are very expensive. (If you've ever calculated what spices cost by the pound, you know just how expensive they are.) Buying spices in bulk can reduce their cost substantially--but it's not a smart thing to do because spices start to lose their potency the instant you open the container...
unless you vacuum seal them.
Keeping air out is paramount to keeping spices fresh. So a vacuum food sealer can keep spices fresh for much longer than their original containers (or any other type of container, for that matter).
With a vacuum sealer, you can buy spices in bulk--saving you a small fortune!
Of course, you don't want to get too crazy with spice buying. Even vacuum-sealed spices are going to start losing flavor after awhile. But for spices you use frequently, buying in bulk and vacuum-sealing makes a lot of sense.
You may not have ever thought to buy spices in bulk. Where can you even find spices in bulk?!
Here are a few ideas:
- Co-ops and natural food stores often have bulk spices (as well as bulk grains, beans, and other dry goods).
- You can find bulk spices in a regular grocery store. Sometimes they're in the baking aisle, next to the regular spices, but more often than not they're in some out-of-the-way corner of the store where you wouldn't think to look: an end cap, the meat department, even at one end of the frozen foods department. If you can't find them, ask your grocer.
The grocery store bulk spices aren't going to come in terribly large quantities (maybe twice as much as a bottle in the baking aisle), but they're going to be quite a bit cheaper than the bottles. Even if you don't buy enough to vacuum seal, you can pour them into the bottles you have at home and reduce your carbon footprint a little bit. - Spice stores like Penzey's (although this is not typically a money-saving option).
- Big box stores like Costco--but their selection is limited, and the spices come in large plastic containers.
- Amazon--here are some ideas for bulk spices available on Amazon to get you started (you can find more if you search).
Buying spices in bulk can mean huge savings. But don't buy large quantities of spices you rarely use--even vacuum-sealed, they're likely to lose their pungency faster than you can use them up.
6. Extending the Life of Bread
If bread products are frozen and vacuum-sealed, they stay almost as fresh as the day you bought them. This makes for quick, easy sandwiches. Freeze pastries, cookies, and cakes for quick breakfasts and desserts, or when unexpected company pops over.
Yes, you can freeze bread products in zip-top bags, or even the bags you buy them in. But vacuum sealing is going to greatly extend their freshness.
You do have to be careful when vacuum-sealing bread products, though: freeze them first, then vacuum seal them. Otherwise, the pressure from the sealer could crush them.
Tip: To store bread and bakery products in vacuum bags, freeze them before vacuum sealing. Otherwise, the pressure of vacuum sealing will crush them.
7. Eliminating Freezer Burn (Making Food Usable Even if Past Its Prime)
Freezer-burnt vegetables: they should've used a vacuum sealer!
Well, this is the main value of vacuum-sealing, and the reason why most people buy vacuum food sealers in the first place. (Sous vide-ing is now the second-most-popular reason.) Keeping air away from food eliminates freezer burn on pretty much everything you put in a freezer.
Sometimes, though, the value goes beyond freezer burn. Have you ever found a package of food deep in the depths of your freezer that you forgot about? If it's not vacuum-sealed, you'd better hope you had the presence of mind to label it because it will probably be un-identifiable. (Never, ever skip labeling a package that's going in the freezer--ask us how we know.)
However, if it's been vacuum-sealed, there's a good chance you'll not only be able to identify it; you'll also be able to eat it--and enjoy eating it.
However, even if food is past its prime (or even if you just don't want to take the chance), vacuum-sealed food is still usable, whereas badly freezer-burned food generally is not.
You can use old meat in stews and soups, old bread as croutons or bread crumbs or in bread pudding...
A vacuum sealer really helps keep your options open with old frozen food.
Always label everything before you put it in the freezer: type of food, date, and even weight/quantity if applicable. You will almost certainly lose track of some of it, and you will congratulate yourself later for being clever.
8. Marinating
Many vacuum food sealers have accessory hoses and containers for marinating.
Did you know you can marinate vacuum-sealed food in a fraction of the time it takes to marinate non-vacuum sealed food?
It's true. The removal of air and the pressure inside the container causes the marinade to penetrate food faster and more deeply than non-vacuum sealed marinades.
Many vacuum food sealers come with accessory ports for use with marinade containers, and some chamber sealers (like the Waring CVS300) have a marinade function (no accessory port required).
How does this save you money? Well, you can marinate and tenderize cheap cuts of meat, making them more tender and flavorful--and you can do it in a hurry, so if you're late making dinner, you still have several options besides calling for takeout.
Cheaper. And healthier, too.
See the FoodSaver Marinator on Amazon. (Note: Not all FoodSaver machines have accessory ports, but the FM2000 and the V4400 both do.)
Most accessory port hoses are universal, and will work with all types of vacuum sealers that have an accessory port. This means you don't have to worry about which brand you buy.
9. Increasing Storage Space (So You Can Buy More Bulk Products)
You can save a lot of space in a pantry by vacuum sealing dry goods.
Air takes up a lot of space, so vacuum-sealed bags tend to be more compact than other storage solutions. If you seal them well, you can even get them to lie flat so you can "stack" everything from hamburger to pesto.
You can save a lot of pantry space by sealing dry goods, as well. Stackable crates can make for even more room.
Making more room means you can buy more bulk products and save even more money.
You can create more storage space by vacuum sealing. Not just food, but other items in storage, like seasonal clothing, yarn, fabric, etc.
10. Sous Vide Cooking
Whether in your kitchen or at a restaurant, a vacuum sealer is great for sous vide cooking.
If you have a sous vide circulator or water oven (check out the Joule on Amazon), your vacuum sealer can save you even more money.
Sous vide is best known for its temperature precision and moist, juicy, evenly cooked meat. This alone is reason enough to have one. But it's also great for reheating leftovers, thawing frozen meat quickly (because of the circulation, it's much faster than just a sink full of water), and holding food at a constant temperature before serving.
This means that you can do freezer-to-table cooking, and store food (if you're clever) in the same bag for freezing and reheating the leftovers.
For example, you can freeze steaks with a small amount of oil and seasoning, then just pop them into the sous vide straight from the freezer. You can have a meal on the table in about an hour and a half--without spending that whole time in the kitchen.
A vacuum food sealer and sous vide cooking go hand-in-hand--and make cooking and reheating super easy.
11. Meal/Smoothie Prepping
A lot of people like to do a lot of meal prepping over the weekend for the week ahead. A vacuum food sealer makes this an even smarter thing to do because it keeps that chopped produce a lot fresher than other containers will. You can prep:
- Salad ingredients
- Smoothie ingredients
- Chicken, hamburger, and other meats for salads, soups, stews, and other mains
- Grains.
If you're already doing this, you'll be amazed at how much fresher these ingredients stay in a vacuum bag than they do in other storage containers. If you're not doing it yet, a vacuum food sealer might be motivation for you to start.
If you like to prep meals in advance, a food vacuum sealer will keep ingredients fresher.
12. Protecting Non-Food Items
Liquids travel by air best when vacuum-sealed.
You can use your vacuum food sealer for non-food projects, as well. It's great for:
- Protecting valuable documents
- Protecting valuables like coins and jewelry from tarnishing/water damage
- Keeping household items safe from water damage
- Protecting camping gear from rain and water damage (matches and maps, for example)
- Keeping toiletries safe from "explosions" when traveling by air.
This list is far from complete: Office supplies! Yarn and fabric! Books! Seeds!
If you're wondering why you would need to vacuum seal documents or jewelry, you don't. Most vacuum food sealers allow you to seal without vacuuming. That seal is going to be way more dependable than a zip-top bag.
A vacuum sealer machine has a lot of uses for non-food items, too.
How Much To Spend on a Vacuum Food Sealer
When people first decide to get into vacuum sealing, they typically don't want to spend a lot of money. What if they hate it? Never use it? Don't have a good place to keep it?
It's understandable that an entry-level option should be cheap. And if you spend less than a hundred dollars on a sealer that lasts for a 2-3 years, you really haven't lost much. It's a great way to get your feet wet with vacuum sealing.
However, keep in mind that a vacuum sealer can save you thousands of dollars a year on food, both by buying in bulk at lower prices and in less food waste. So even if you spend several hundred--even if you spend $1,000 or more!-- you're going to come out ahead.
Vacuum Food Sealer Options
There are 3 types of vacuum food sealer: handheld/nozzle sealers, edge/channel sealers, and chamber sealers. Each has its pros and cons.
You can also check out the Vacuum Sealer page for more vacuum sealer information and vacuum sealer buying guides.
Which Vacuum Food Sealer to Buy
Here are some of our favorite vacuum sealers. Whether you want to go cheap or go all out, these are three of the best options available. (And if none of these suit you, see our other articles for more choices.)
Best Nozzle Sealer: Oliso Pro VS95A
Best for: Leftovers and short-term storage.
The best vacuum food sealer for leftovers and other items you'll want to open and re-seal frequently is the nozzle sealer (also called a "handheld" sealer, although not all of them are handheld). The bags are designed for re-use: most of them have zip seals and don't need to be cut open. Nozzle sealers are small, weighing just a couple of pounds, so they're easier to store than other types of vacuum food sealers.
The Oliso Pro is one of the most powerful nozzle sealers out there--and, at around $150, one of the most expensive ones. For a less expensive alternative, check out the FoodSaver cordless handheld sealer.
The good:
- Small and easy to store
- Bags can be re-used several times and are dishwasher safe
- Excellent for leftovers (because the bags are re-sealable)
- Liquid Mode detects moisture and prevents it from getting into the machine.
The bad:
- Weak pump compared to other sealer technology (edge/chamber)
- Can have trouble creating a heavy duty, long-term seal
- Not great for long-term storage
- The Oliso Pro is as expensive as some edge sealers.
Buy the Oliso Pro VS95A on Amazon now:
Or, check out the foodsaver cordless handheld vacuum sealer:
Best Under $100: FoodSaver FM-2000
If you want to get into vacuum sealing for less than $100, the FoodSaver FM2000 is a great choice. Even with a Starter Kit (includes a few gallon bags, a few quart bags, one roll of bags, and an accessory hose for the accessory port), the FM2000 runs well under $100.
See the FoodSaver FM2000 with Starter Kit on Amazon.
The FM2000 even has an accessory port, which allows you to seal canisters and marinade containers.
But the best feature of the FM2000? It uses about 40% less bag than other sealers (including other FoodSavers). This means you can buy fewer bags (or especially bag rolls), and you're leaving a smaller carbon footprint.
Win-win.
Oh, and another great feature: The FM2000 comes with a 5-year warranty.
The FoodSaver FM2000 is also an Amazon best seller. It has thousands of customer reviews and an average rating of 4 stars.
For a more detailed review, see our review of the best vacuum sealers on Amazon.
The good:
- Uses up to 40% less bag to seal (saving you money and plastic waste)
- Comes with generous amount of bags
- Accessory port
- Excellent price
- 5 year warranty.
The bad:
- Like all edge sealers, not good for liquids and wet foods.
Buy the FoodSaver FM2000 vacuum sealer:
Best Under $200: FoodSaver V4440/Weston Pro-Advantage
FoodSaver V4440--Most Automation and Extra Features
Great for: Does long-term storage (edge sealer), short-term storage (nozzle sealer), and has an accessory port to vacuum seal canisters and marinade containers. Also seals automatically, so no frustrations getting the bag placed in the channel properly.
The FoodSaver V4440 Series is a 2-in-1 vacuum food sealer: an edge sealer with a handheld nozzle sealer included. There are a few different models, but the V4440 is the least expensive of them, and they all have pretty much the same features.
If you want the easiest-to-use sealer available, or one with all the bells and whistles, this is the sealer for you. Bagging is almost completely automatic: just insert a bag in the channel and watch it go.
Want something easy to use? Check.
Want something for resuable bags? Check.
Want an accessory port for canisters and marinating? Check.
Want a 5-year warranty? Check.
The FoodSaver V4440 is one of the best-selling sealers on Amazon, with thousands of reviews and an average rating of 4.7 stars.
For a more detailed review, click here.
The good:
- Fully automatic bagging
- Built-in storage and cutter for rolls of bags
- Handheld nozzle sealer included (using it requires different bags)
- 5 year warranty.
The bad:
- Bulky
- More expensive than other FoodSaver models, but with the same pump and vacuum strength
- Buying two types of bags can get expensive.
Buy the FoodSaver V4400 vacuum food sealer on Amazon now:
Weston Pro-Advantage--Most Powerful Vacuum Pump Under $200
Great for: Durable edge sealer for long-term freezer and pantry storage.
The Weston Professional Advantage vacuum sealer doesn't have all the extras of the FoodSaver V4440, but it has one thing the FoodSaver sealers lack: a powerful vacuum pump.
FoodSavers don't disclose their vacuum pump's power. They consider this to be proprietary information. But people have tested them--you can see videos of this on YouTube--and found the pull to be, well, weak compared to other sealer brands.
Weston food vacuum sealers have specifications, so you know exactly what you're getting when you buy one. The Weston Pro-Advantage has a 210 Watt motor that pulls 23 inches of mercury (23" Hg). This is a stronger pull than what most people are finding with their FoodSaver testing (though weak compared to a chamber vacuum sealer or commercial-grade edge sealer).
The Weston Pro-Advantage also has an accessory port, as well as a durable stainless steel housing. It also has a Pulse button so you can manually control the sealing of delicate foods easily. It's more durable and more powerful than a comparably-priced FoodSaver, even though it lacks some of the automation and other features.
The Weston Pro Advantage was selected by America's Test Kitchen as their favorite vacuum sealer under $200. It has a good rating on Amazon (about 4 stars) despite a fairly large number of poor reviews that say it was hard to use or didn't last, and that Weston wouldn't help customers once the sealer was out of warranty (which is 1 year).
It is a little tricky to get the sealer to work, as it requires a fair amount of downward pressure to get it to "lock" and seal properly. Even so, this is the most powerful vacuum sealer you'll find at this price point (under $200).
For a full review on the Weston Pro-Advantage, click here.
The good:
- Durable
- Powerful
- Accessory port for canisters and marinating.
The bad:
- At around $180, a fairly expensive edge sealer. Not as powerful as its sister Weston sealers, but more powerful than a FoodSaver.
Buy the Weston Pro-Advantage vacuum Sealer on Amazon now:
Best Overall Vacuum Food Sealer: VacMaster VP200
Great for: Vacuum strength, durability, sealing liquids and wet foods.
See it on Amazon (best price!)
The VacMaster VP200 is the only chamber vacuum sealer on the list, but we think it's much better than edge sealers and nozzle sealers. Chamber sealers are more powerful, they're more durable, and they're designed for heavy, continuous use--most edge sealers require a cooling-down period between seals, but this is not the case with chamber sealers: they will run for a long time without needing a break.
The biggest difference between chamber sealers and edge sealers, though, is that you can seal liquids in a chamber sealer--no freezing or other workarounds necessary. This is because the pressure is completely equalized inside the chamber, so liquids don't get sucked up into the pump.
What sets the VP200 apart from other chamber sealers is that it is designed for home use. So it weighs less-- at about 25 pounds, it's a fraction of the weight of most chamber sealers.
Furthermore, it has a 12-inch sealing bar: the standard length--for both edge sealers and chamber sealers--is 11 inches. This means you can use larger bags.
It also has an accessory port for sealing external containers; this is a great feature for a chamber sealer.
The VP200 has the same heavy-duty internal components as the heavier and more expensive VacMaster VP210. It's build quality is not quite as robust as heavier chamber vacuum sealers, but it is ideal for the home user, and offers the same vacuum strength.
The good:
- Can seal liquids with it
- 12-inch sealing bar
- Only 25 pounds
- Accessory port
- Same vacuum pump as VacMaster's commercial grade VP210 chamber sealer
- Chamber vacuum bags are cheaper than edge sealer bags.
The bad:
- It's a bigger up-front investment than an edge sealer
- Its bulkiness might not work in a small kitchen or limited storage space.
Buy the VacMaster VP200 Chamber vacuum Sealer:
Final Thoughts on How a Vacuum Sealer Can Save You Money
Have we convinced you that your kitchen needs a vacuum food sealer? It's one of the best investments you'll ever make for your kitchen, and it will pay for itself in less wasted food, being able to buy in bulk, and even time saved.
Anything we've forgotten? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
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