REVIEW – FoodSaver V4880 Vacuum Sealing System

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The product(s) featured in this post was provided free of cost to me. Please note that, as always, any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.

Have you ever gone to get meat out of your freezer to defrost for dinner only to find the wrap from the store didn’t hold up? Have you ever cleaned out your freezer and had to throw food away because it’s gotten freezer burn? I have. Many times. The plastic wrap they use at the grocery store just isn’t made for freezer storage. Zippered bags, if and when they stay zipped, get expensive. Live with freezer burn and you’re eating food that just doesn’t taste as good. The other alternative is to throw it away, which always makes me feel guilty.

What about bags of snacks or cereal? How many times have you gone to get something to eat and found everything in the bag had gone stale? Most snack and cereal bags don’t seal. I hate stale chips. Clips don’t keep air out. Once again you’re either eating food that isn’t as fresh as it could be or you’re throwing it away.

What about bread? It takes us a good week or more to eat a loaf of bread. In hot and humid weather such as what we have now in the summer, bread turns moldy a lot faster. Those thin plastic bags that bread comes in never last. Half of the time the little plastic thingey that keeps them closed breaks in half.

I receive a FoodSaver V4880 Vacuum Sealing System for this review. The black and silver model looks sleek and modern, and blends in beautifully with the rest of my kitchen. Plus, I think the black and silver colors don’t show dirt quite as much as white and beige.

The FoodSaver has a built-in cord holder underneath the machine. I love this because it keeps the cord out of the way when you’re not using the machine. That being said, there’s a good chance that when you’re finished reading this you’ll understand why you might want to just leave the FoodSaver on your counter, because there are so many things you can do with it.

The FoodSaver is so easy to use. I remember when they first came out years ago they took some work to use. Now they’re pretty much automatic. The unit comes with premade bags in several sizes. To use these you put your food into the bag and then put the bag into the FoodSaver. Once you put the bag in the FoodSaver vacuums out all of the air and then seals it shut. There’s a drip try at the base of the unit that catches the liquids and food particles during the vacuum sealing process.

If you don’t want to use premade bags, you also have the option of making your own from a roll. The roll sits inside of the machine. The sides are already in place on the rolls, so all you need to do is take care of the top and bottom when you’re working from the roll. To make a bag from the roll you measure out how much you’ll need and add at least four extra inches. If you know you’ll be resealing that particular bag again you need to leave one additional inch for each time you are planning on resealing it. Then you cut what you’ve measured from the roll by moving the slide from one side to the other. Then you seal one end of the bag. To do this you first seal one end shut by pressing the seal button. After that you proceed just like you would if it had been a premade bag. All of that sounds like a bit of a process but in reality it takes under a minute.

Another thing the FoodSaver can be used for is marinating meat. The FoodSaver has a Quick Marinate Cycle that takes about ten minutes to marinate meat. I find this really convenient, as I never remember to marinate the meat until about the time that I’m ready to cook it, at which time there isn’t much of a point. To use this you put the meat into a special FoodSaver container. You then use the handheld vacuum sealer and attach it to the top of the container. The handheld unit then repeatedly creates and releases a vacuum seal, which allows the meat to marinate more quickly than the traditional marinating process.

All of that food that gets thrown away because it’s not fresh cost money to buy. So, when we throw away stale food, or freezer-burned food, we’re basically just taking money out of our wallet and depositing it right into the garbage. Instead of throwing your money away, consider investing it in a machine that will save your food – the FoodSaver. You can save food and money by using it. You can save time by buying in bulk and freezing things, rather than go to the grocery store frequently. You can cook ahead of time and freeze those meals. It’s great for use for things you use often as well as for meal-planning.

Here’s a brief video that explains some of this a bit more clearly.

How would a FoodSaver help you save time or money?

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