Jerky and vacuum bags

[dirtsailor2003]

A while back I bought the zipper vac pack bags that Lisa has:

http://shop.vacuumsealersunlimited.com/40-Pint-Size-Zipper-Vacuum-Sealer-Bags-948501.htm

I bought the pint size and the gallon size bags. I wanted the pints for packing meat and cheese treats, specifically jerky and sliced summer sausage, and snack sticks. I thought that they would be great for trips and camping.

For jerky I have been having a 95% failure rate. Seal the bag pop it in the freezer. Pull it out of the freezer and there is air in the bag. Yes I even double seal. Still getting bag failures. With the sliced summer sausage I am getting a 20% failure of the bags.

The  gallon bags I use primarily for packing leftovers and they have worked flawlessly.

I have been in contact with Lisa and she mentioned bag failures with jerky. Siting that the 3 mil isn't durable enough for the jerky. I'm a bit miffed as the web page specifically says "Our zipper vacuum bags lets you conveniently store deli meats, jerky, trail mix, etc."

So if you plan on using these for jerky I would avoid them.

Just to clarify, these are the only bags that I have had issues with that I have got from Lisa.

 

[daveomak]

At one time, I thought you wrapped your jerky in butcher paper to protect the bags from being poked, and holes forming, from the dried jerky...

With the description of "good for jerky", I can see why you may have discontinued that wrapping step...

 

[BGKYSmoker]

DS

I cut the sharp ends off and wrap in butcher paper or even leave in the paper bag then vac seal.

80lbs to Afghn like that and 0 bag failure.

 

[max2]

What do you think is causing the failure?

 

[dward51]

I've been using the Ary VacMaster pre-cut bags from the Webrestaurantstore.com and had very good results with dehydrated jerky (which seems to have toughter "pointy" parts than sticks.  These are polyethylene and nylon and are commercial grade.  I've been using them in pre-cut pint, quart and gallon sizes.  For me, the price is reasonable and I just use them once with food in them.  I will reuse them with dry spices and dry spice mixes (I vacuum them to keep fresh and can get a couple of reseals out of each pint bag before they are too short).

I have had a seal fail, but it was my fault and due to the shape of the items I was packing (wrinkle in the seal area).  I generally double seal my freezer meats "just in case" and have not expierenced any failures since I started using these.  Pre-cut beats rolled hands down IMO.  They come in packs of 50 and I usually order 200 of each size when I order to get the most bang for my shipping buck.

They do have the zipper bags (open on opposite end for sealing), but I have never used those.

20160923_124920.jpg

• dward51
• Sep 23, 2016

Here are some very dry dehydrator snack sticks that I packed in the pint bags....  They keep longer in the fridge or freezer this way.  The loose on top was for short term eating

20170107_130750.jpg

• dward51
• Jan 7, 2017

 

[johnmeyer]

I too have failures with Lisa's zip bags. My conclusion: they are defective.

I bought a bunch of them and am finally just cutting the zipper off and using them as regular vacuum bags which I seal with my Foodsaver. The "ziploc" on her bags doesn't hold air. I just had another failure this morning on a bag with two dinner rolls in it that was in the freezer. It was totally inflated when I pulled it out this morning, just 24 hours after having been evacuated and sealed.

FWIW, almost all the manufacturers are now producing junk bags that don't hold a seal. I started a thread about this a month ago:

Are there any decent resealable bags (e.g., Ziploc)?

I have now tried Ziploc, Hefty, Lisa's bags, and even the Foodsaver "zipper" resealable bags.

They all fail.

The Foodsaver zipper bags will sometimes hold their seal. I cannot figure out what makes them work once in awhile. Unfortunately, about 80% of the time they fail. The Ziploc bags have 100% failure rate: they never work. I wrote to them about it, and they sent me coupons for more free bags. Every bag from the new boxes also fails.

As for Foodsaver, I have written to them twice about the 80% failure rate (which is documented in the Amazon reviews) of their "zipper" bags, and much to their discredit, they have not even given me the courtesy of a reply. By contrast, Johnson (the owner of the Ziploc brand) responded, gave me coupons, followed up with several phone calls, and did everything they could to help me.

If you are interested in learning more about the Foodsaver problems, just skim the first several of the highlighted reviews, remembering that these are the best and most positive reviews (you may need to click on the reviews link to get to the reviews, even though my link is supposed to take you there):

Foodsaver Zipper Bag Reviews

 

[tropics]

I only have a foodsaver and also The vac for the zip bags 

Richie

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Just to re-iterate the only bags that are failing are the pint zipper bags.

All the other bags I have (currently ultra) including the gallon zipper bags work fine. Yes loaded with jerky, all the others work fine. I have never had to cut ends off, wrap in butcher paper or otherwise with my jerky. Did I mention that all the other bags are working fine with the jerky???

The pint zipper bags are also failing with sliced summer sausage. I haven't tried snack sticks as I haven't made or packed any since getting the zipper bags.