Is a Vacuum Food Saver Right For You?

You would think that being a food blogger, I would have had a vacuum food saver machine in my kitchen arsenal for years. You’d be wrong. I’ve always wanted one — to keep food fresher for longer, but most vacuum food savers always seemed so big and bulky (and I have a tiny kitchen). Plus, I wanted something multi-functional. Something that would work for food sealer bags for freezing meats, mason jar vacuum sealers for dry goods and for cooking sous vide. The Oliso Frisper Pro-1000® delivers on each of those promises and keeps food fresh up to 5x longer. That’s HUGE.

I am an affiliate for Oliso® and received free product in exchange for my honest review. If you make a purchase from the affiliate links here, you’ll pay no more and I’ll make a small commission. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Included with the Oliso® food saver machine

• Oliso® Pro vacuum food saver
• Quart-sized food sealer bags
• Gallon-sized food sealer bags
• Flexi Tube
• Zip Disc (bag sealer)
• Wine & Olive Oil Freshkeeper

Optional Accessories available for vacuum food saver:

• Mason Jar Vacuum Sealer
• Vacuum food sealer bags

To me the only downside was having to purchase special food sealer bags, until I realized that the bags were reusable and resealable for up to 10x per bag. So you can actually get up to 140 vacuum seals per box.

The first thing I noticed about the Oliso vacuum food saver is the size. It’s fairly compact (13″ x 9″ x 5″) and lightweight (under 4 pounds). Its sleek, simple design is modern but not industrial. It’s the kind of appliance you don’t mind having on your countertop and it’s so functional and easy to use, that’s probably where it should reside permanently. That said, it’s definitely small enough to tuck into a drawer or on a pantry shelf, should you chose to.

What to vacuum seal first

My first attempt at vacuum sealing with the food saver machine was with a half used block of cheddar cheese.

I prefer to shred my own cheese for recipes because the pre-shredded cheese has anti-caking agents that don’t blend as well in sauces and the like. The thing is, I rarely use an entire block of cheese and even when I wrap the leftovers well in parchment and plastic, if it’s not used within a few days, the leftover cheese will either:

1. Dry out.
2. Grow mold.

Either way, I’m either forced to cut away the bad portion or… toss the whole thing. With the Oliso® vacuum food saver, the cheese stays as fresh as when I first opened it. Additionally, the Oliso food storage bags can be resealed again and again, which means that you can use just the amount you need and save the rest for another use in a week or two — and it’s still perfectly fresh. LOVE THAT.

The key to the ultimate seal are the handy zip-disc bag sealer and those previously mentioned food sealer bags . These specially designed ABS plastic bags have a zip-top closure, which can be opened and closed repeatedly. Along the vertical sides of the bags are numbered arrows which indicate where to insert the bag to achieve a tight vacuum seal. Once portion is used, you go on to the another one for the next vacuum seal. This has the result of making the bag smaller as you continue to use it, however, if you’re using it for the same item (like this tray of smoked salmon), you’ll have a smaller amount of food each time you reseal it anyway.

How does the food saver machine work?

1. Place the food inside the storage bag.
2. Press out any extra air from the bag and use the zip disc bag sealer to close the bag, by running the disc along the zipper.
3. Choose the arrow that you’re going to start with (they’re numbered from the bottom of the bag to the top to give you as much storage room as possible for subsequent resealings.
4. Insert the bag (arrow first) flush into the food saver machine. It will automatically stop at the line.
5. Choose “wet” or “dry” depending on what you’re sealing. (For this smoked salmon, I used “wet”.
6. The vacuum food saver will automatically begin sucking out the air and then seals the bag with a heated “stamp”.

Look at this smoked salmon. When the machine was done sealing, the package looked nearly identical to what it looked like when I purchased it — tightly sealed and air and contaminant-free.

Save money by buying in bulk

With a family (even a small one of 2-3 people), the idea of buying in bulk is an economical way to stock the larder and I often buy large packages of chicken, pork chops and ground beef and break them down into smaller, more manageable amounts . Freezing them in smaller amounts portioned out for our family is an easy way to meal plan. Just pull out a package to defrost and figure out what you want to make. The Oliso® vacuum food saver is the perfect machine for that and the tough, resilient food sealer bags insulate whatever you’re vacuum sealing to prevent freezer burn, cause there’s nothing worse than freezer burned meats, fish or veg.

During the summer months, we like to stock up on fresh, wild sockeye salmon (it’s one of our favorites). While we enjoy it fresh all season, I usually tuck several fillets into the freezer for a treat come November or December. I used the gallon sized Oliso® food sealer bags to vacuum seal and store large fillets of sockeye, so that whenever I’m in the mood, I just unzip the bag, remove what I want and reseal it with the food saver machine. It’s so handy.

Food sealer bags are reuseable

The package says the storage bags can be washed and dried to use again and again (up to 10 times). I would definitely re-use them if I’d been storing nuts or other dry ingredients, but I’m not sure I would if I’d used the bag previously for raw chicken… but that’s me.

Great for meal prep

If you like to batch cook on the weekends, the Oliso Frisper vacuum sealer is invaluable. Make pots of soup or stews and portion them out for the week using either the mason jar or for the month by freezing them in food sealer bags.

Vacuum seal for sous vide

The Oliso® vacuum food saver is natural for sous vide cooking since sous vide means “under vacuum” in French. Oliso even has its sous vide machine to pair with the food saver – too bad I didn’t know about that before I got mine. I’ll share some of my sous vide favorites in the coming weeks and months, and I’ll let you know how the food sealer bags work for me. I have a feeling they’ll do fine.

Will the Oliso® vacuum seal a mason jar?

I’ll be honest; this one took me some time, mainly because the mason jar attachment didn’t come with instructions. I was left with my intuition, which invariably fails me where electronics and technology are concerned. Despite my lack of mechanical prowess, even I could vacuum seal the mason jar.

• Fill the jar. (I filled it with a granola-snack mix)
• Rest the thin mason jar lid on top of the opening and screw the mason jar vacuum sealer onto the jar (it works with any standard-sized wide mouth jar lid).
• Attach the flexi-tube to the hole in the jar and then to the Oliso food saver.
• Press the button on the Oliso® for “flexi-tube” and the machine does the rest, sucking out all the air in the jar and creating a tight vacuum seal to keep my snack mix fresh and crunchy for weeks. Easy peasy.

Built-in lid remover

I thought this part was really clever… Built into the mason jar vacuum sealer is a little silver tab, which I thought was purely decorative. It’s not. That little tab easily breaks the vacuum seal of the jar; just slip it under the edge of the lid and lift up to break the seal. Easy peasy.

Incidentally, I conducted a small experiment and sealed a jar of snack mix in a mason jar for a week. When I came back and popped the top, the mix was SUPER FRESH and UBER CRUNCHY. It tasted like I’d just made it.

Other ways to use Oliso® vacuum food savers:

• Create an air-tight seal with leftover wine with the “fresh keeper” so not a drop goes to waste. (Honestly, I don’t know the meaning of leftover wine, but if you do, you’ll love that feature).
• To store your “good” oils. Keep then free from air that can erode the flavor and aroma of your best finishing oils.
• Grind your own coffee and vacuum seal it in a mason jar. You’ll get freshly ground aroma and flavor every morning.
• Reseal pickles, chutneys and relishes to last longer and stay fresher.
• Store homemade granola and vacuum seal it to gift to friends, relatives or neighbors. This is great for sealing food gifts at the holidays. You can make the treats in advance, and they’ll stay as fresh and new as if they were just baked.

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