Preserving Food Is Both Smart And Safe.

KAYSVILLE, Utah, June 2006 – Shelf life of food is short if food is not properly prepared. Bacteria eventually set in and food spoils. Spoiled food is not only dangerous and repulsive to people, but costs stores money in lost goods. Certain methods, apart from chemical preservatives, have been created to help cut down on the amount of time it takes for bacteria, fungus and more to set in.

The most common method for preserving food is the refrigerator. Refrigerators have helped extend the life of food not only in stores, but in homes as well. The cold temperatures make it hard for bacteria to grow. Refrigerators are especially effective with milk, cheese products and other goods. The down side is that refrigerators cost a lot of money to run. If it were more cost-effective, everything would be in refrigerators. Some stores in remote locations are unable to use any type of refrigeration. Because it is not cost-effective, other methods have been created to help preserve food. One of these methods is the vacuum sealer.

Vacuum sealers encapsulate products in airtight plastic that helps prevent bacteria growth and preserves food. When a product is placed in the vacuum bag, the air is removed and the end is sealed, preventing air from rushing back in. The end result can be placed on a shelf, hung on a wall or stored in another location. For added safety, many factories and stores will shrink wrap dairy products such as cheese, or meat products and then place them in a refrigerator for added shelf life.

Chamber vacuum sealers are especially popular. When a product is placed in a chamber sealer, the air is removed from the entire chamber. Once the bag is sealed, the air in the chamber returns back to normal. Because the bag is sealed in an airtight environment, air cannot enter the sealed bag as the chamber is normalized. Chamber sealers allow the amount of removed air to vary from no air to 99.9 percent, depending on the machine. This is ideal for delicate products like potato chips. If 99.9 percent of the air is removed from a bag of potato chips, the chips would be crushed.

With delicate products, the amount of air removed is reduced. This protects the delicate food product. Nitrogen air tanks can be attached to most chamber vacuum sealers, replacing the oxygen with another gas that has better preserving properties. Although some bacteria do not require oxygen to survive, most bacteria is wiped out when the oxygen is swapped out for nitrogen.

Office Zone now carries a wide variety of vacuum sealers. You can see what some of these machines look like by going here: http://www.officezone.com/vacuum_sealers.htm. Vacuum sealers vary in size and capabilities. Smaller sealers can be commonly found in home use, where larger chamber sealers are typically used on a more industrial level.

For further information, please contact David Stuart, Marketing Supervisor of Office Zone, 1-888-346-9184, info@officezone.com.

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