Review: VacMaster VP330 Chamber Vacuum Sealer

None of the following is a paid endorsement.

Hot tip — Upgrading from heat shrink sealing to vacuum sealing changed the entire trajectory of my business.

The Business/Quality Case for Vacuum Sealing

When I started raising broiler poultry almost a decade ago, we used heat shrink bags to package our birds. After slaughter the birds were placed on this awkward-looking PVC pipe contraption to dry them out (this turned out to be patently unnecessary), then placed them in these special bags that were dipped in hot water (180 deg F) inside a turkey fryer.

This is probably a well-enough solution for homesteading and really, really small scale production; but heat shrinking does four really bad things.

First, you’re basically re-scalding your birds at a temperature that’ll quickly start to cook your breasts. This takes the quality of your chickens into a nosedive and will make your product unsellable to a lot of picky customers, especially high-end chefs.

Second, it’s not a great seal. Air can get in, freezer burn is fairly likely, and even if freezer burn isn’t an issue the packages just don’t freeze up as pretty.

Third, shrink bags can be a pain to deal with in small sizes, meaning that…