Vacuum sealing is a great solution to preserve foods of all kinds so that you can enjoy them later. You can even vacuum seal some kinds of fruits and veggies for later use which is really exciting if you have not wanted to learn to can your fresh foods.
Vacuum sealing has never been easier as the cost of vacuum sealers has come down significantly.
There are some foods that should not be vacuum sealed. Things like bananas, mushrooms, and other soft foods rarely handle being vacuum sealed gracefully.
This is one of the weak points of the vacuum sealing process because moisture can make your vacuum sealing process unsuccessful.
Vacuum sealing works best with foods that are not too wet and that can be carefully separated from one another in the sealed bag.
If you want to learn more about the foods not to vacuum seal, you need to read on!
Table of Contents
Foods Not To Vacuum Seal
1. Bananas
Fruits are hard to vacuum seal because they are wet. When you take the moisture out of fruits they are just not enjoyable anymore and if you seal them into a vacuum sealing bag with their native moisture intact, they will spoil inside the bag.
Removing the air is not enough when you are looking at sealing up wet items and bananas are one of the worst offenders for the vacuum sealing process and failures related to moisture.
2. Raw Garlic and Raw Onion
These foods make their own gasses as they start to break down and this can lead to rot inside the bag.
Even if you remove the air from the bag when you seal these items into the bag, you will likely still have issues with the moisture of these food items and the gasses they produce leading to them spoiling.
There are other ways to preserve these kinds of foods with more success than vacuum sealing and they are always best when used fresh for your cooking needs.
3. Mushrooms
Raw mushrooms just do not vacuum seal well. This is because they tend to ripen and decay while inside the bag. They are also one of the veggies that produce their own gasses as they break down.
You will find that mushrooms will not only spoil quickly, but they will also look brown and icky almost immediately when vacuum sealed.
4. Soft Cheeses
Hard cheeses are really easy to vacuum seal but soft cheeses are naturally moist and they will spoil inside the vacuum sealed bag.
Things like unpasteurized cheeses will also come along with lots of active bacteria that can cause the cheese to break down even when not exposed to oxygen.
These cheeses can actually mold and rot faster inside a vacuum-sealed bag than they would if they were stored in some other way.
Soft cheeses will never have the shelf life of harder cheeses and this cannot be prevented with the use of a vacuum sealer.
5. Whole Apples
Apples have to be sliced before they are vacuum-sealed. This is because of the natural moisture inside an apple and also because it can be tough to get a vacuum on an apple.
Apples do their best when they are cut and have lemon juice applied to them before they are sealed into their vacuum bag.
Make sure your apple slices are dried and separated from one another when you seal them into the bag.
6. Cooked Veggies
Cooked vegetables do not preserve well under any conditions and vacuum-sealed bags are no exception.
The steam from cooking these vegetables can negatively impact the preservation of your cooked vegetables when they are sealed too soon after they have been cooked.
You can sometimes preserve cooked veggies for a month or two if you let them cool down completely before they are sealed.
You should consider these vegetables suspect if you have stored them in a vacuum bag for longer than a couple of weeks.
Tips For Successful Vacuum Sealing
You will need to be sure that your veggies and fruits are not touching when they are vacuum-sealed. Fruits and veggies that are touching will create moisture where they are touching and this can lead to collections of bacteria and the breakdown of your food inside the bag.
Things like arugula, Bok Choy, cabbage, radishes, turnips, and all fruits need to be kept from touching one another inside the vacuum bag if you want them to last.
It can be hard to keep things separated inside the bags that you are sealing but if you place them on a flat surface before you seal, you will not cause them to slip down into a heap at the bottom of the bag.
This can be the best method for sealing many kinds of foods and you might want to use this method when you are using a vacuum sealer.
Vacuum Sealing is Not Easy With Some Foods
There are some foods that just do not seal up readily and do not last for a long time in a vacuum-sealed bag.
These items are included on this list and you will need to think about other items that you can preserve instead of these foods if you want to use vacuum sealing for your method of food storage.
You will have better luck with the taste and the freshness of these items if you just buy fresh. Sometimes you need to admit that you cannot save money by trying to vacuum seal items that will not last for a long time inside the vacuum-sealed bag.
Most fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to seal into a vacuum-sealed bag correctly. You will want to be sure that all of the food items that you decide to vacuum seal are dried and that they are not touching when you close up the bag.
This will give you a much better vacuum sealing experience overall and you will have vacuum-sealed foods that are ready to be enjoyed when you need them.
I am Brianna, a self-published author with a passion for sharing my knowledge and expertise on various topics with people looking to find the perfect items for their needs. I love ensuring that the right informative content is available to people looking for the right information. I am an avid horseback rider and reader when I am not writing.
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