North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

Are those the HandiVac bags?  They can’t be reused if any tiny stuff – such as a grain of flour - gets in the zipper lock, because they won’t hold a vacuum. and might have trouble if they’re not perfectly dry.  To be able to consistently reuse them, use a liner bag so the bag stays clean.  I use grocery store produce bags for bigger stuff, and the cheapest sandwich bags I can find for smaller.  Double bagging is still thrifty, as the only bag you use up is the little sandwich bag; without using the vacuum bag, you’d be using and discarding a bag that uses more plastic to make and money to buy.   I use them constantly.  I rigged my Foodsaver to vacuum them so I don’t go through batteries.  It’s much cheaper to use disposable bags than the kind you vacuum seal and have to cut away three inches of material to open and re-seal. 

 

~ Stephen

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Kathryn Mathews
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:34 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] Inexpensive vacuum seal bags

 

I bought that little vacuum device and accompanying bags available in the plastic storage bag section of the supermarket after reading some recommendations on this site.  It has worked very well for me but I was disappointed to find out that the bags aren't reusable, which greatly diminishes their appeal.  They have an small inner pouch that seems somehow to draw off excess moisture but seems almost impossible to dry out.  The fine print in the instructions indicates the bags are not to be reused, although the front of the box is misleading, saying they can be sealed over and over again, which is true only if you are removing part of your originally stored contents.  I'd be tempted to try to reuse them for things like frozen berries that haven't been sugared or treated in any way.  But when I used them for meat, the inner bag was full of blood and there is no way I would try to reuse something like that.  Just thought others might want to know this detail before considering this product.

Kathryn Mathews

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