When I use Mylar, I always use gusseted zip top bags. I will zip the top most of the way then suck out the rest of the air from corner and finish zipping before I heat seal. This creates a pretty good vacuum. However, most of the time I use double gasketed enamel lined paint cans that I purchase new. They hold a full 16 cups of product as opposed to #10 cans that hold 13 cups at best and best of all, the cans can be opened and resealed. Indefinitely reuseable. I have yet to have a failure with properly dried food using these cans. We have been using these cans for food storage for a couple of decades, and for freeze dried foods specifically since 2015. Every year I will take a random sample of freeze dried cans of varying dates and open to check them and so far so good- to include the dried pasta sauces that have olive oils in them. (When I package high fat foods, I always double the oxygen absorbers 🤞🏻)
I wait over a month before putting food in totes for long term storage. But, without this video i have always thought it was something I was doing wrong. I vacuum seal all my food with a chamber vacuum sealer with a O2 absorber. I throw away the puffy bags out of abundance of caution. I'd say 1 to 2% of my bags get puffy. Great info! Thanks
I completely agree. I have gone to add more freeze dried food to a shelf and found bags that had a hole ,so I used that item and tossed the mylar bag, because I couldn't trust it.😊
This is exactly why I don’t vacuum seal- creates unnecessary stress between the bag and potential sharp points. In fact I like having some extra head space for some things that are sharp- just inert gases once the O2 absorber is done doing its thing.
Understandable. I don't vacuum pack fruits and food high in sugars due to clumping. Foods with fats and oils I always vacuum pack, and I often double bag food with sharp edges.
I have had some jars that didn't seal or lost the seal later that I'd done in my vacuum chamber. I didn't discover it until I was moving the jars a year later. So now I wait a week before putting the jars away to make sure the seal has held. I guess I'd better start waiting 2 weeks.. I always learn something new from this channel.
Good advice. I learned this by chance as I am a procrastinator and often weeks will go by before I put the bags into long term storage. Now, I do it intentionally.
Some of my pointyer foods go in an extra large brown paper lunch bag before going into the mylar bag. Some stuff that i dont freeze dry like macaroni noodles go into a paper bag the get vacuum sealed. Seems to help a lot.
Less than two years or greater than two years. Many items I freeze dry wilI just be put into ziploc bags since they will be consumed within 12 months: ua-cam.com/video/DdI74uPZOiA/v-deo.html
If you’re rotating ( fifo) through your storage and consuming, you shouldn’t have the problem of not noticing that your vacuum sealed mylar has failed. Too many people put their food in totes and forget about it. I’m in my totes checking on the weekly. Every tote.
Goofy question for you. My wife is going to be opening her own bakery in about two months. She wants to put in a Harvest Right commercial freeze dryer. She is wanting to build a dedicated room for the freeze dryer, and if we extend the vacuum line, we could put the pump in an adjacent room. That should drastically reduce the heat the freeze dryer would have to compete against. In your opinion, would doing it this way be smart, or would having a longer vacuum line be detrimental to the performance?
@@Philat4800feet The bakery is going to be warm in general. The heat from the pump could potentially be used to help heat her proofing room, but we would need to see just how hot it would get. The dedicated room for the freeze dryer would ideally be cooler than bakery, which is why I don’t want the vacuum pump in same room as the freeze dryer. To help eliminate excess heat in the freeze dryer room, I would like to put the pump in a different area. I didn’t know if running a longer vacuum line would put a strain on the pump or the freeze dryer. My ultimate goal is to ensure the longevity of the equipment, and help the efficiency of her bakery.
We will 100% be doing what you’ve said with getting the XL Premier pump and avoiding the oilless pump. Your advice on using the Black Gold oil, filtering the oil once then safely disposing it, and changing the oil after each use is absolutely going to help us lengthen the life of our equipment too!
Thanks for all you do!! In your experience, when you find a bag that you are questioning a leak because it has more volume than you think it should, do you remove the food and reseal with new bag and absorber? Do you use the food or toss it? How long of a time period do you think would be "safe" to do either of those things?
By two weeks you should know if the bag is good or bad. I will dump the food in a new bag with a new OA. If there are really sharp edges on the food, I'll double bag the food. If the food is old, I'll perform a sniff test.
If your food is dry it wouldn't matter. If your food is cold due to remaining ice crystals, your food will spoil. Warm/hot food placed in bags will develop its own vacuum when cooled. I prefer bagging warm food. it's easier to detect cold spots. You can't over dry food. Add extra dry time.
Hi Phil, happy new year. Can I also package my fd fruits without an oxygen absorber into kraftpaper bags with plastic isolated inside. They are airtight, but I wanna sell them without an OA inside, because a lot of people don’t like them. Thx very much!! By the way my FD never worked well …
I'm not familiar with kraft paper bags. How long is the expected shelf life of the fruits? It may be OK for the short term but I question the life for the long term without something to remove the oxygen. Could you use nitrogen gas? This is used to package potato chips and snack foods.
@@Philat4800feet Thank you very much. The shelf life is 12 Month. I have to package the fruits by myself. I don’t have nitrogen gas possibilities. The Kraftpaper is isolated and in the inside like Mylar bags. I don’t need to hold them for 5 years. 1 year would be fine… what do you think?
You may need to do some research on fruit preservation. Coating your fruit with citric acid would help. You might want to contact your local extension office.
Jars shouldn’t be stored with rings. If the lid were to ever unseal then reseal with temperature fluctuation you wouldn’t know. That’s why folks that pressure can foods don’t store with the rings on.
When I use Mylar, I always use gusseted zip top bags. I will zip the top most of the way then suck out the rest of the air from corner and finish zipping before I heat seal. This creates a pretty good vacuum.
However, most of the time I use double gasketed enamel lined paint cans that I purchase new. They hold a full 16 cups of product as opposed to #10 cans that hold 13 cups at best and best of all, the cans can be opened and resealed. Indefinitely reuseable. I have yet to have a failure with properly dried food using these cans. We have been using these cans for food storage for a couple of decades, and for freeze dried foods specifically since 2015. Every year I will take a random sample of freeze dried cans of varying dates and open to check them and so far so good- to include the dried pasta sauces that have olive oils in them. (When I package high fat foods, I always double the oxygen absorbers 🤞🏻)
Great Advice Phil! Yes, leaks do indeed happen. I do an inventory check regularly! I too store in totes, so it makes the inspection fast and easy.
I wait over a month before putting food in totes for long term storage. But, without this video i have always thought it was something I was doing wrong. I vacuum seal all my food with a chamber vacuum sealer with a O2 absorber. I throw away the puffy bags out of abundance of caution. I'd say 1 to 2% of my bags get puffy. Great info! Thanks
I completely agree. I have gone to add more freeze dried food to a shelf and found bags that had a hole ,so I used that item and tossed the mylar bag, because I couldn't trust it.😊
Me too!
I store my food mostly in jars.. and i check them regularly. Stuff is too expensive to not keep an eye on it. Great info.. thank you
This is exactly why I don’t vacuum seal- creates unnecessary stress between the bag and potential sharp points. In fact I like having some extra head space for some things that are sharp- just inert gases once the O2 absorber is done doing its thing.
Understandable. I don't vacuum pack fruits and food high in sugars due to clumping. Foods with fats and oils I always vacuum pack, and I often double bag food with sharp edges.
I have had some jars that didn't seal or lost the seal later that I'd done in my vacuum chamber. I didn't discover it until I was moving the jars a year later. So now I wait a week before putting the jars away to make sure the seal has held. I guess I'd better start waiting 2 weeks.. I always learn something new from this channel.
Thanks. Here somethings else to learn:
ua-cam.com/video/na367Q4sptI/v-deo.html
Good advice. I learned this by chance as I am a procrastinator and often weeks will go by before I put the bags into long term storage. Now, I do it intentionally.
Sooooo helpful - I’m incorporating this practice!
Great info Phil. I was letting mine sit out for a week but will now wait an extra week. Some food gets really hard & sharp! Thanks again!
Excellent advice. I try to keep my bags and jars in a box on the counter for a couple of wekks. I quite often check the jars.
Some of my pointyer foods go in an extra large brown paper lunch bag before going into the mylar bag. Some stuff that i dont freeze dry like macaroni noodles go into a paper bag the get vacuum sealed. Seems to help a lot.
Good idea. I often double bag with ZipLoc gallon bags. I use a paper punch to make holes.
Great advice! Thank you!
Hi Phil. So I guess we need some entrepreneur to develop freeze dryer bag patches! 😁
You used the phrase - long term storage vs short term storage. How would you quantify those time frames?
Less than two years or greater than two years. Many items I freeze dry wilI just be put into ziploc bags since they will be consumed within 12 months:
ua-cam.com/video/DdI74uPZOiA/v-deo.html
If you’re rotating ( fifo) through your storage and consuming, you shouldn’t have the problem of not noticing that your vacuum sealed mylar has failed.
Too many people put their food in totes and forget about it.
I’m in my totes checking on the weekly. Every tote.
Good idea. I'm still building up my storage and the rotation period could be around five years.
Goofy question for you. My wife is going to be opening her own bakery in about two months. She wants to put in a Harvest Right commercial freeze dryer. She is wanting to build a dedicated room for the freeze dryer, and if we extend the vacuum line, we could put the pump in an adjacent room. That should drastically reduce the heat the freeze dryer would have to compete against. In your opinion, would doing it this way be smart, or would having a longer vacuum line be detrimental to the performance?
Could you use the excess heat to warm a room?
@@Philat4800feet The bakery is going to be warm in general. The heat from the pump could potentially be used to help heat her proofing room, but we would need to see just how hot it would get. The dedicated room for the freeze dryer would ideally be cooler than bakery, which is why I don’t want the vacuum pump in same room as the freeze dryer. To help eliminate excess heat in the freeze dryer room, I would like to put the pump in a different area. I didn’t know if running a longer vacuum line would put a strain on the pump or the freeze dryer. My ultimate goal is to ensure the longevity of the equipment, and help the efficiency of her bakery.
We will 100% be doing what you’ve said with getting the XL Premier pump and avoiding the oilless pump. Your advice on using the Black Gold oil, filtering the oil once then safely disposing it, and changing the oil after each use is absolutely going to help us lengthen the life of our equipment too!
Can you freeze dry chicken wings thighs and legs or only chicken breast
Cooked or raw? You'll need to remove the bones and as much fats as you can and vacuum pack it.
Thanks for all you do!! In your experience, when you find a bag that you are questioning a leak because it has more volume than you think it should, do you remove the food and reseal with new bag and absorber? Do you use the food or toss it? How long of a time period do you think would be "safe" to do either of those things?
By two weeks you should know if the bag is good or bad. I will dump the food in a new bag with a new OA. If there are really sharp edges on the food, I'll double bag the food. If the food is old, I'll perform a sniff test.
Thanks@@Philat4800feet
Do you have a video on pump leaks?? Wifes pump leaking trying to troubleshoot.... Thank you
Sorry, no. Just instruction on tear down. Is the cover gasket leaking? HR may have a replacement.
how are you vacuum sealing the bags? i have a vac sealer but it will not work with mylar bags.
Two ways:
ua-cam.com/video/nHM2cnf_FY8/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/CDj02lxBFiQ/v-deo.html
Should i put freeze dried food into the mylar bags while theyre cold? Or should i warm trays and then package? Will they get soft if packaged cold?
If your food is dry it wouldn't matter. If your food is cold due to remaining ice crystals, your food will spoil. Warm/hot food placed in bags will develop its own vacuum when cooled. I prefer bagging warm food. it's easier to detect cold spots. You can't over dry food. Add extra dry time.
Hi Phil, happy new year. Can I also package my fd fruits without an oxygen absorber into kraftpaper bags with plastic isolated inside. They are airtight, but I wanna sell them without an OA inside, because a lot of people don’t like them. Thx very much!! By the way my FD never worked well …
I'm not familiar with kraft paper bags. How long is the expected shelf life of the fruits? It may be OK for the short term but I question the life for the long term without something to remove the oxygen. Could you use nitrogen gas? This is used to package potato chips and snack foods.
@@Philat4800feet Thank you very much. The shelf life is 12 Month. I have to package the fruits by myself. I don’t have nitrogen gas possibilities. The Kraftpaper is isolated and in the inside like Mylar bags. I don’t need to hold them for 5 years. 1 year would be fine… what do you think?
And do you know any Nitrogen Gas machines that are affordable for home? And small business? 🌞
You may need to do some research on fruit preservation. Coating your fruit with citric acid would help. You might want to contact your local extension office.
Contact a welding supply company. You would run a small hose into your bag to displace the oxygen and then seal the bag.
😂
Jars shouldn’t be stored with rings. If the lid were to ever unseal then reseal with temperature fluctuation you wouldn’t know. That’s why folks that pressure can foods don’t store with the rings on.
Yup
No rings when water bath or pressure canning is correct. Rings must be used when vacuum sealer is used (dry method).