The Food Storage Blog

Occasionally someone will ask if they can use a Food Saver to vacuum seal a Mylar bags.  In general, the answer to that is no; Food Savers are designed specifically to handle their particular channel bags.

I received an email last week from Don Sheets saying he had found a way to use a Food Saver to vacuum seal Mylar.  Needless to say, I was intrigued.  He followed up with a full set of pictures and explanation, which I now present to y’all! In essence, it is a method to create Food Saver Channel Bag ‘Straws’, which can then be used to vacuum seal a Mylar Bag. Very cool.

Thanks Don! (My apologies for the poor formatting, working with a group of pictures in WordPress is not yet my strong suit!)

Soldering gun with tip made from #12 or #14 copper wire

Soldering gun used to score and seal Food Saver bags. Run the tip over the spot several times to insure it seals the edge.

Step 2:  Score and Seal Food Saver Channel Bags. Repeat as many times as you have bags to seal.

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Cut the strips apart in between sealed areas.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Step 4:  Cut the ends off the strips for air to flow through them.

Cut the ends off the strips for air to flow through them.

Step 5:  Place one strip in bag with about ½ inch or more sticking out.  Put in sealer and vacuum.

Place one strip in bag with about ½ inch or more sticking out. Put in sealer and vacuum.

Finished product is a vacuumed bag of rice with an oxygen absorber inside. Cut the excess strip off.

I had a customer today ask about the folding of the bags and whether it damages them.  Definitely understandable, as there is some creasing of the bags when folded.  I asked her to try to do a seal test to determine the integrity of her bags.  She sealed a bag and submerged it in water to see if there were any leaks…happily for me, there weren’t!

The Mylar bags we sell are actually a multi-layer combination of foil, PET (a type of plastic) and LLDPE (another type of plastic).  The two plastic layers are the oxygen barriers and enable heat sealing…the foil is mainly for stability and keeping out light.  All foil bags also have ‘pinholes’ in them (up to and including the heavy duty 7-8mil bags), however they do not effect the integrity of the bag because it is the other layers that are really keeping the air in and out of the bags.

Great news!  After much haranguing of my vendor, we are now back in stock with 2000cc Oxygen Absorbers.  Our listings have been updated!

As I still get the question now and again, this is a reminder that all prices in the store now include Free Shipping!

Well, I always wanted to be a place folks could rely on to get their food storage stuff.  However, you may have noticed last month I ran out of 2000cc Oxygen Absorbers.  The day the shipment was to arrive in our warehouse I called my main supplier to ask why it didn’t arrive.  Only then did they tell me the order hadn’t even shipped.  Worse, they said they were out of stock, and no one knew for how long (Yet they cashed my check while I’m still stuck waiting, more than a month later).  I started subbing larger quantities of 300cc absorbers for the 2000’s, and while not optimal, that was working ok.  However, I went to place my order on Friday of last week for 300cc absorbers with my 2nd supplier, and they let me know they were out of stock as well and a new shipment wouldn’t arrive until the 2nd week of April.  UGG! 

Exacerbating the whole supply issue is the Tsunami in Japan which occurred on Friday…I am lucky I was off from my day job, as we did triple our average volume of sales as people started to stock up in the wake of the disaster.  However, it nearly wiped out my stocks of larger absorbers (we still have 100cc absorbers remaining), and I will have used up the remainder by tomorrow.

In any case, I am here to let you know we are essentially out of stock of both 2000cc and 300cc absorbers for the near future.  I am trying to place a 300cc order with another supplier right now, but they can’t yet give me any indication whether they are in stock or if it will occur.  I called some other suppliers as well, but they wanted so much that I would have to raise my prices more than I am willing to.

You all have my deepest apologies.

If there is any silver lining to this situation, it is that while I am out of stock on these items and not shipping many orders, I am going to work on the new e-commerce ordering system, listing some items I haven’t gotten to (buckets, Gamma Seal Lids and some Rothco stuff), and otherwise improving the back end of the business which has been left wanting as our order volumes increased dramatically. 

Oh, and I am still fully stocked on Mylar bags (we actually got a new shipment of bags in this week, and they are beautiful; I am ultra happy with a new supplier), including the large 5-gallon Zip Seal bags.

I’ve been meaning to get this done for a while now. This is the first draft of the Comprehensive Food Storage FAQ, based on the most frequent questions we get at Advice and Beans regarding our products. It will have it’s own link at the top of the page so it is easily accessible to folks finding their way here. Please feel free to let me know any questions you might have as well. If its not something I can answer, I’ll get our manufacturer’s to give us the scoop!

Thanks!

Comprehensive Food Storage FAQ v. 0.1.1

What is an Oxygen Absorber?
An oxygen absorber is a small packet of material used to prolong the shelf life of food. They are used in food packaging to prevent food colour change, to stop oils in foods from becoming rancid, and also retard the growth of oxygen-using aerobic microorganisms such as fungi.

The active ingredient is an iron oxide powder, which when it chemically reacts (ie. rusts) removes oxygen from the atmosphere.

How do I know when an oxygen absorber is working?
The most obvious sign an oxygen absorber is working is that it gets warm. When continuosly exposed to oxygen, some can get so hot as to be uncomfortable to touch, and will often form condensation on the inside of the outer package.

How do I know when an oxygen absorber is used up or no good?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions we get. The easiest way to tell if an oxygen absorber is good is to pinch the packet. If it feels ‘soft’ or powdery, the iron oxide powder is still in its original state and it is good. If it feels ‘hard’ or like a solid wafer in the packet, it is completely spent and should be replaced.

How long should it take for my absorber to remove all the air from my bag?
Some conditions are better than others for the speed at which an oxygen absorber works. For example, in a very dry climate, it might take up to a week for an absorber to fully activate. In a warm, humid climate it might take only 48 hours.

Why don’t some of your absorbers have the little pink pill in the pack?
This is another very common question. There are two main reasons. The first is it adds to the cost of the product. The second is that the pill doesn’t really tell you what you think it does. The pill (it’s official name is an Oxygen Indicator Tablet) only tells you that there is one good oxygen absorber in the pack, not that the entire pack is good. For example, if only 1 oxygen absorber in a pack is good and 49 are bad, the pill will still show pink. If the packets have been exposed to oxygen and 90% of their absorbing capacity is used up and only 10% remains, the pill will still show pink.

It is infinitely preferable that you use the ‘pinch method’ above to determine whether your absorbers are good, not an indicator tablet.

So what’s the history behind the pink pill?
The original seller of oxygen absorbers in the US for long-term food storage included these in the packaging. Interestingly, for them to get the pill into the packaging requires opening vacuum-sealed master bags, dropping in a pill, and resealing the pack. Thus, the factory-sealed packs we sell have been exposed to less air than the packs that have pills in them, making them more likely to be usable, not less.

How many oxygen absorbers should I use?
For 1-gallon bags, you should use 1-2 300cc oxygen absorbers. For 5-gallon bags you should use 5-7 300cc oxygen absorbers or 1 2000cc oxygen absorber. You should adjust this number up a little bit if you are storing less dense foods, such as pasta or some lentils, because the bags will contain more air even when full in comparison to very dense foods such as rice or wheat.

Do I need to use oxygen absorbers with everything I store?
Most foods will benefit in longevity when using oxygen absorbers. However, they are unnecessary when storing sugar or salt. In some cases, using an absorber with these foods will cause signficant clumping, although it won’t harm them otherwise. Also note that some foods may not store well for long periods of time no matter the method used (for example flour, yeast and some spices).

What is Mylar?
BoPET (Biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and aroma barrier properties and electrical insulation.

A variety of companies manufacture boPET and other polyester films under different brand names. In the US and Britain, the most well-known trade names are Mylar, Melinex and Hostaphan.

Wait, your Mylar bags aren’t clear; what’s up?
The polyester film is combined with a foil layer and in some cases another sealent layer of LLDPE (Linear Low-Density Polyethylene); this allows for good heat-sealing, UV protection, low odor transmission, and high puncture resistance.

How do I seal Mylar bags?
Please see this post and video about sealing Mylar bags. Mylar can be sealed with a variety of devices, including a hotjaw sealer, clothes iron, or hair straightener.

OMG, I can see pinholes of light coming through the Mylar bag, why is that?
All foil structure Mylar bags will have small pinholes in the foil layer. There is actually a measurement, ‘Pinholes per meter squared’, that is part of the specification of foil bags. Pinholes affect all foil structures, from a thin 2.5mil bag to the thickest 7-8 mil bags. The other transparent layers of the bag keep the integrity of these bags, and it is only very rarely (less than 1/100th of 1%) an actual ‘pinhole puncture’.

Why don’t my bags get hard when I use an oxygen absorber?
This is our third most common question. While there will be some compression of the Mylar bag after sealing due to the oxygen absorber, an absorber is only removing the 20% of the atmosphere in the bag that is oxygen, leaving the 80% that is nitrogen intact. Also, when sealing bags make sure you remove as much of the ‘headspace’ as you can; this is the area at the top of the bag you seal. Even a little headspace can use up much of the power of the oxygen absorber.