If you have a vacuum sealer, you probably use this tool to seal all kinds of food so that it will keep for the long haul. This can be the best way to store everything from fruit to vegetables, to things like soups.
You might already have a system in place that has allowed you to store all kinds of your favorite food items and prepared foods so that you don’t have to waste any food in your house.
You might be wondering if you can use your vacuum sealer to store the hot meals that you have just gotten done eating.
After all, you probably have been storing the warm foods that you have not consumed in Tupperware or another storage container and popping them into the fridge for years.
There are some limitations to how you can use vacuum sealers for this kind of need, however, and you will probably want to avoid using your vacuum sealer for this kind of storage need.
If you are ready to learn more about whether or not you can use your vacuum sealer to store warm foods, you need to keep reading.
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Can I Use my Vacuum Sealer to Store Warm Food?
The answer to this is no. You will not be able to use your vacuum sealer to store warm food due to the chance that bacteria will grow inside the storage bag, contaminating the food inside.
This is one of the key risks that you should be aware of any time you are storing food that is reasonably fresh. Your vacuum sealer is made for long-term food storage and is not intended to handle foods that have just come out of the oven or off the stove.
Remember as well that your vacuum sealing bags are probably not up to the task of sealing up hot foods and that you can impact the seal of the bags just due to the temperature of the food you are sealing inside of the bag.
You will want to be sure that all of the foods that you store with the vacuum sealer are at least room temperature before they are sealed up.
While vacuum sealing is always a great method for food storage, your vacuum sealed bags can still grow contaminants if you do not utilize proper storage processes. This also is true of storing items with dirty hands.
The bacteria from your hands can easily ruin the food that you have stored in your vacuum sealed bags, and you will want to avoid this problem as well.
Always vacuum seal with clean hands, and make sure that the foods that you want to seal up are not hot when they are stored. Be sure as well to use a marker to indicate what date the sealed food was placed in the vacuum sealed bag so that you do not waste food that you have kept around for too long.
This is easier to do than you might think, so labeling your foods with a storage date can be a big benefit for your storage and consumption system.
Can I Store Soups and Other Hot Items With Some Preparation?
The answer to this is yes, you can store things that you would normally eat hot, like soup, in vacuum sealed bags. If the item that you are storing cannot be cooled to a solid state when you wait for it to be room temperature, you can easily freeze these foods to make sure they can be stored with ease using a vacuum sealer.
Anything that will be a liquid when it is ready to eat can be frozen first and then sealed up into vacuum sealed bags. This is true of chili, soup, and other food items that are not solid when they are ready to be consumed.
You will also need to remember that you must store a small amount of these kinds of items in each bag to make sure that the seal remains solid.
It can be tough to get a good seal around a large mass of any food item, and anything that is frozen into a cube will tend to put pressure on the seal of your vacuum sealed bags if it is too large. Make sure to have the right thickness of vacuum sealer bags as well for jobs like this one.
No matter whether the food that you are sealing has been frozen before it is ready to be sealed or not, you should wash your hands. As mentioned before, the bacteria from your hands can contaminate your stored food, even inside the vacuum sealed bag.
Having clean hands can make a huge impact on the lifespan of your vacuum sealed foods, and make sure that you do not find out your stored food has gone bad while it was in the freezer or fridge.
Vacuum Sealing Should be Reserved for Room Temperature or Cooled Foods
No matter what kind of food you want to seal up with your vacuum sealer, these items need to be at room temperature at a minimum before they are sealed.
Hot foods can grow bacteria inside their vacuum sealed bags, and you might also impact the seal of the storage bag due to the heat and steam that hot food can bring with it. Making sure to let your food cool before sealing it is easy, and you can even pop these food items into the fridge or freezer before sealing them up.
Always make sure that you have the right vacuum sealing bags for storing things that need to be frozen before they are sealed. You will also want to mark the date on any items that you are sealing so that you do not forget to use the oldest stored foods first.
Vacuum sealing can be a really ideal solution for your food storage needs, and sealing up cooked foods is really easy once you have allowed them to cool to a safe temperature for storage.
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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