Food preservation vacuum sealers

[grulla]

When I woke up this morning, I turned on the TV and found an interesting hand held, food vacuum sealer, half hour info-mercial ad by Duo Nutri Sealer from Power XL, that appears to be able to accomplish a lot more than older and more expensive food sealers have done in the past, and for a fraction of the price. I have always given some thought to vacuum food preservation and freezing, but the one thing that always bothered me was the "need" to buy their "special" costly vacuum bags. This Duo Nutri Sealer ad demonstration also provided for a larger, but less costly??? supply of freezer bags. The video also let it quickly slip by that they were repackaging some of their food with the original food producers' bags. It sort of reminds me of buying cheap computer printers whose ink cartridges cost more than the printer. But here is a website that claims otherwise. https://vacuumsealerzone.com/can-vac...r-use-any-bag/
ALSO, there is a handheld, NON-electric automotive brake vacuum pump tool available that one can readily use with food preservation adapters for canning and bagging. https://www.amazon.com/Actron-CP7830-Hand-Vacuum-Pump/product-reviews/B0009XQUK2
And here is a 13 min. video explaining a lot about various vacuum sealers, even though some of the equipment has become outdated due to the above XL Duo company and others. But a lot of the advice on this video is still applicable and timeless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j6QjxHDiJk

[Islander]

Vacuum bag sealers have been around for a long time. My son and DIL gave me one when they upgraded to a newer better version. They are DINKs so when they buy items in bulk, say nuts or rice or dried fruit or such, a vacuum sealer is helpful because it excludes all the air that accelerates decay. In their pantry they might have multiple small bags of say, dried dates or cashews; opening one small bag at a time is much more practical in terms of consuming small amounts of an item. I almost never use mine unless it's for long-term storage of fresh chicken, because excluding all of the air before putting the bag in the freezer does extend the quality time for a frozen product, but the process uses a lot of plastic… So you buy your ticket and you take the ride.