I have been working to reduce food waste in my house. First, to reduce our carbon footprint, and secondly, to save money. I don't know about you, but groceries are a huge part of our budget and getting more expensive by the day.
I have had the ad pop up several times showing a vacuum sealer for mason jars. The ad asserts food stored in mason jars will last longer, meaning you throw away less food.
I have such a vacuum sealer. Granted, it is one of the less expensive models. If I recall, it was about $30 a year ago. When I got it, I was having difficulty getting a good seal, so it has been sitting on the shelf. I decided to pull it out and try again.
I tested it on cherries and spinach. I had both for a week before vacuum sealing. The spinach was already showing some signs of spoiling, so I pulled out all of the bad leaves and rinsed/dried what remained. The cherries were fine in the crisper drawer. In the photo to the left you see the food 2 weeks later. By now, the spinach should be a pile of goo and the cherries moldy. Both are perfectly fine. I have opened the spinach a couple of times to pull out some leaves for mixing into my omelets and sandwiches, and then resealed (be careful breaking the seal or you may need to use a new lid).
My vacuum sealer does a great job on the wide-mouthed mason jars. I still have problems with the small-mouthed jars with getting a good seal. I just do it over until I get a seal, which usually takes 3 or 4 attempts. A different model might do better.
Overall, I see this as a good way to preserve fresh food longer. I was using mason jars to store rice, beans, lentils, and pasta already, but I wasn't vacuum sealing. I will be doing that next to see if it improves the storage life. I noticed this week my brown rice was clumping, so perhaps this will help keep the moisture out.
It wouldn't take long to recoup an investment in a sealer. Cherries are running almost $9/lb and spinach, almost $2/bunch. More if you are buying organic. Give it a try.
