How to Prevent Freezer Burn on Your Frozen Food

Storing food that was bought in bulk is a great way to save money on the fluctuating costs of food, but so many times it happens that after a while the food starts looking dehydrated. No one wants to eat food that is halfway to being jerky. Take a stand against the high cost of food, and energy. Here is a great way to make sure your frozen goods last the full run. No longer do you need to buy a vacuum sealer, and its expensive plastic rolls of bagging.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Plastic wrap
• Sealable freezer bags
• Food Scale (Optional)

1. After you've bought your bulk items, and made room in your freezer. Separate your large packages into single or double sized portions for wrapping, and freezing. Once you've determined the size of the portions, proceed to the next step.

2. Get the plastic wrap, seal each portion individually, and make a close tight seal with the food to get rid of any extra air pockets. This will make it easy to separate when it's time to cook them. Repeat this for all of your single portions until they are all wrapped tight individually in plastic.

3. Place your portions into bags based upon your average meal size. This will save time later so that all you will need to do is pull out a bag when it is time to use. The portions will be right there, and ready.

4. After the bags have been filled to desired capacity, close them by sealing the bag. When you close the bag, leave a small opening at the end of the sealing line to press out all of the air inside. If possible roll the bag to remove even more air as you are assisting it with gentle squeezing.

5. When as much air as possible has been removed, then close the end of the bag. This should create a slight vacuum effect inside of the bag. Doing so creates a moisture barrier so that the dry cold air of the freezer won't suck the moisture out of your freshly sealed food.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use this tip for cooked foods as well, but be CAREFUL to MAKE SURE the FOOD has COOLED off!
• Sealing hot food is potentially dangerous to your health! Anaerobic conditions can breed harmful bacteria. ALLOW THE FOOD TO COOL FIRST!

Resources

• Garden Guru's Website
• Shop from a wide variety of high-end kitchen tools, cutlery, cookware, butcher blocks and small electrics at KitchenU.com; you’ll find freebies with purchase and free shipping

[tnpos]

on 6/27/2009 Thank you for sharing. 5 for this

[starlet67]

on 5/28/2009 Great tips for preventing freezer burn!5*

[Gourmet2Go]

on 6/6/2008 I agree, good advice thanks

[akchrist]

on 6/5/2008 Oh, how I hate the taste and smell of freezer burn!!! Thanks for the ideas.

[RhiannonAidan]

on 6/4/2008 Thank you for the tips. This past week I have had two packages of meat that I JUST purchased start to look all freezer-burned, covered in ice crystals. And they are still in their original package! I will use your method in the future.