Seal-a-Meal unit product reviews

Many years ago, a friend taught me a trick to minimise freezer-burn on beef steak and mince... grab a resealable bag and pack the goods into it, leaving a small space at the top. Insert a drinking straw into one side of the bag, and seal the bag up as tight as possible.

Then simply suck the air our of the bag, careful not to inhale any particles of food (perhaps using one of the empty sipahh straws instead of a normal straw would help in that regard) and once you have removed as much air as possible, you simply seal the bag as you withdraw the straw.

It's not 100% effective, but it worked well enough. But then I was introduced to this little unit, and what a difference! As an experiment, I sealed a couple of slices of fresh shoulder bacon using my old method, and another couple using this unit, and stuck them in the freezer for a couple of weeks... that's usually the minimum time it takes for any effects of freezer-burn to show up.

Three weeks later and I extracted both packets and inspected them. Sure enough, the packet sealed with the 'old favoured' method contained bacon slices that were starting to show discolouration and once cooked it tasted a little 'off'. However the slices sealed with the Seal-a-Meal unit were as good as the day I packed them, full of flavour and free from any discolouration.

The unit itself it quite compact, and the built-in drip tray was quite effective at capturing the few drips of bacon juice that got sucked out with the air. The noise level of the unit was of some concern, however it is quite tolerable if you are only sealing a few bags at a time. However, the safety features that prevent accidental activation of the heating strip leave something to be desired.

Quite simply, as you click the lid shut, a small moulded pin presses down a microswitch which prevents the heating wire lighting up when the lid is open, but the vacuum pump will still fire up. While the lid is open, there is still free access to the 'vacuum' and 'seal' buttons are still easily accessible. Curious little hands could possibly depress the safety button and activate the 'seal' function, causing the hotwire to fire up. Perhaps it wasn't a smart design idea to keep the activation buttons accessible when the lid is wide open. No point to it really.

Overall, if you look past this slight niggle, the unit itself is quite remarkable. Although the sealant bar operates at a temperature that will melt through most plastic bags, the included bags are manufactured to withstand the high temperature without distortion or melt-throughs. A lower heatbar setting, allowing you to use more normal bags would have been nice, but I guess you just can't have everything. I found myself quite impressed with it's features and functionality, and look forward to many more packets of food sealed fresh and safe to eat, free of freezer-burn.