Help!

I'm thinking about getting one of those vacuum sealer things and I need to hear from someone who has one! Do they work - for regualr food and for baked goods (I am particularly interested in whther or not they will damage decorated cookies)?

If you have one, could you PLEASE tell me how you like it and which one you have (brand and model #, if possible). Everyone will be havign big Labor Day slaes around here this weekend, and it seems like the perfect opportunity to buy one if it's a good idea.

THANKS!!!

I do have a food saver and really like it although I do not use it much. If you just use the regular bags to seal your cookies, yes, they will be damaged. You cannot seal anything in bags that is soft or breakable because the thing sucks all the air out and clings to the food inside. I vacuum seal foods such as chicken, beef, cheese and other things such as fondant, sugar, flour, etc. If you want to vacuum seal such things as cookies, cereal, chips, etc, there are special containers you can buy that will vacuum seal. They are like tupperware containers but the food saver sucks all the air out.

I have one and use it all the time. I can't remember the name but I got it at Costco and the box is leaf green. I use it escpecially when I make MMF and can store it in that instead of using all my tupperwares. I use it for everything.

There is a button on mine for "quick seal" and it seals the bag without pulling all the air out so maybe you could try that for cookies.

I don't know what I did without it.

I have a food saver as well. I love it, would be a toss up between the vac sealer and the Kitchen Aid if I ever had to downsize. If you were to just toss cookies in a bag it will damage them, however, I have frozen a lot of decorated cookies with no problems. I decorate them, freeze them for a few hours and then lay them in the bags in a single layer. The freezing ahead of time stops the sealer from destroying the decorations and the cookies stay in one piece. The canisters work great for storing extra gum paste...it will not dry out in them.

thanks everyone for such quick responses. What model food savers do you have? there are so many to choose from!

I had a Vac800 but I recently upgraded mine to the V2440. I use mine a LOT for everything so the more features the better but if you are only planning on using it occasionally you don't need to go with the really big models. Just make sure that yours has the hose port, some of them don't and without it the only thing you can ever use is the bags...no mason jars, no canisters or anything. You might not think you will ever use it but I started out with one that didn't have it and had to replace it a month later after I realized how great it was.

I have the food saver the deluxe one that does every thing. I love it i get all the meats and stuff that is on sale in bulk (love cosco) and devide it out then i have food for the whole month.

As far as cookies as long as i with every one else i would use the containers the tight air seal might stick to the icing you could try the containers but like she said it sucks all the air out it might break them.

I love my foodsaver. I use it for everything. I don't make cookies (yet LOL) but I have foodsavered cupcakes without issue..they have a setting where you can stop it once it reaches your item but still get most of the air out of it. Mine is a v1205. It sits on my counter and I got it as a gift..mocked it when I first saw it but now couldn't live without it. Mine came with bags, a container for liquids and a video on how to use it. My only recomendation is to order extra bags because you will find yourself foodsavering tons with it. Oh you can also foodsaver fondant which is one of my favorite things about it...I just got a 20lb bucket and will break it down to 1 or 2 lb pieces and then I just put the small foodsavered packages back into the bucket. Makes it so much easier than trying to cut off the amounts you need for a cake,,.I can estimate easier this way

i also have a food saver. i vacum pack my left over almond paste. It will crush your delicate cookies. I do agree with a fellow poster to just seal the bag with out vacuming it. i also dont use mine much but it is still a life saver.

thanks so much everyone!!!

I'm also interested in purchasing a vaccuum sealer so when I saw your post I looked up FoodSaver. I guess they have a new model that has a feature to stop the vaccuum process when you want it to.

FoodSaver® Advanced Design V2840 Kit
It even has a CrushFree Instant Seal feature so that, for the first time ever, you can immediately stop the vacuum process when vacuum packaging delicate foods.

Maybe that could help with your cookies.

Leslie