Vacuum Sealing Food

Vacuum sealing food will extend its storage-life to a year or more.

The enemies of dried food are air and moisture. Oxygen slowly oxidizes dehydrated food and diminishes its quality. Oxidation of fat eventually turns meat rancid. Dried food slowly absorbs humidity from the air allowing mold to grow.

If your storage needs are short-term, such as a month in the house or a weekend on the trail, Ziploc® bags are all you need. For long-term storage and longer hikes, vacuum sealing food will protect your stash from air and moisture.

Vacuum seal bags come in quart and gallon sizes or in 8” or 11” wide rolls. You save a little money with the rolls because you cut the length to your needs. I use the 8" rolls to store individual foods, and the 11" rolls to store daily rations.

Some vacuum sealers come with a tube that attaches to optional canisters. Canisters are great for vacuum seal food storage because you can open them, take out the food you need, and vacuum seal the canister again. The canisters are a little pricey, and because most of my storage needs are mobile, I use the rolls only.

For an added level of preservation, vacuum sealed foods can be frozen – with no risk of freezer burn – until you are ready to use or pack them. I store dehydrated meat in the freezer until I am ready to pack it into individual meals. Then I vacuum seal my daily food rations for trail use.

I use a FoodSaver® Vacuum Sealer, Model #V2440.

V2440 has two speed settings for vacuum sealing food- Moist or Dry. With the Dry setting, the food scrunches up tight – saving space when packing several days of rations. The Moist setting is useful for marinating and/or freezing steaks and vegetables. Model #V2440 has automatic and manual vacuuming and sealing functions, plus a port and tube for use with the optional canisters. The sliding cutter cuts the rolls into any length bags needed.

Before you begin vacuum sealing food...

Dried food storage begins with drying the food well. Corn and peas will dry hard. Broccoli and green beans will dry brittle. Onions, peppers, and tomatoes will dry pliable, which is fine for short-term storage, but go for crispy for long-term storage. Apples, peaches, mangos, and bananas will dry pliable, but can be dried crispy with a little extra time in the dehydrator. The surface of the fruit should feel smooth, not sticky. Pineapple takes the longest to dry because of the high juice content. Some tackiness will remain in dried pineapple because of the high sugar content. Previously dried food may be put back into the dehydrator if moisture appears on the food or storage container.

How long will dehydrated meat keep before turning rancid?

The answer starts with choosing the proper meats and drying them well. Dehydrate lean meats with fat content less than ten percent. Meats which dry well include lean ground beef and turkey; and deli cuts of roast beef, turkey, and ham. Do not dry other types of pork or fatty fish. Canned tuna dries well, but there’s something about a fishy smell that reduces confidence. If not vacuum sealed, tuna will darken and smell stronger after a month or two, a sure sign of rancidity. I wouldn’t recommend the tuna at right – one of Chef Glenn’s experiments – for your next tuna melt.

Dry all meats until brittle, except for beef jerky. Although it is dried raw, beef jerky is preserved with a salt rub or brine solution, so drying it until leathery is fine. Most people report that their family consumes their beef jerky as fast as they make it. For deli meats like ham, blot-off any beads of fat on the surface of the meat with a paper towel a couple of times while drying. When dry, deli meats will snap into pieces rather than bend. Allow meat to cool before placing in storage containers.

I pat down cooked, ground beef between layers of paper towels before dehydrating. When the ground beef comes out of the dehydrator, I place it between fresh paper towels. The amount of grease that blots off at this stage is negligible. If any moisture appears on the paper towels, I put the meat back into the dehydrator. You can run hot water over cooked ground beef through a colander to rinse away grease, but some of the meat flavors go down the drain. If you need to store dehydrated ground beef for more than a year, a hot water rinse will aid in preservation. I have stored vacuum-sealed, dehydrated ground beef for ten months without rinsing with hot water. It would have lasted longer, but I ate it.

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Chef Glenn vacuum sealing food and packing meals for a 28-day backpacking trip.