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I’ll admit that cooking sous vide (French for “under vacuum”) — the process of sealing food in an airtight bag, then immersing it in a water bath at a precise temperature — is a bit beyond my patience level in the kitchen. But vacuum sealers aren’t just for sous vide cooking: they’re also helpful for warding off freezer burn, especially if you like to buy proteins and other ingredients in bulk and keep them on ice until needed.

The new FoodSaver VS2100 Vacuum Sealer ($200, canadiantire.ca), for example, claims it can preserve frozen foods for up to five times longer than traditional freezer bags can. I recently tested one out for myself, and here’s what I found.

It’s flexible for a variety of foods. Included with my FoodSaver was an 11-inch roll of vacuum-sealing plastic (though the extras that come with the product vary by retailer). The roll is open on both ends, so you can customize each bag for your needs. It slots into the storage tray, where you can measure out how much plastic you’ll need for, say, a few cobs of corn, before sliding the cutter bar across the sheet to separate your bag, then seal one end. This means you’ll always have the right size of bag for your food.

There’s a learning curve. Having never used a vacuum sealer before, I found getting started with the FoodSaver a bit challenging. On my first try, the vacuum function didn’t make my bag of blueberries airtight — not even close. And while it sucked out the air on my second attempt, the bag reinflated as soon as the vacuuming stopped. The solution: I needed to place the bag into the device in just the right way — deep enough, but not too deep. Finding that sweet spot every time can be frustrating.

The VS2100 has three buttons: vac, seal and dry/moist. When you press “vac,” your bag is supposed to be automatically sealed as soon as it’s done. I found this was only sometimes true; after trying to store cherry tomatoes, I lifted open the appliance, only for them all to come rolling out. To be safe, I now press “seal” again once the original process is finished. (When this is done isn’t obvious: there’s no noise and the indicator light is small.) Once I got the hang of the FoodSaver, however, it was much simpler, and vacuum-sealing chicken breasts and ground beef was a breeze.

It definitely helps prevent freezer burn. When I sealed my batches of blueberries, cherry tomatoes, chicken breasts and ground beef, I also stored the same types of foods in freezer bags so I could compare. After just a week and a half, ice crystals had already started to form around all the freezer-bagged foods; the vacuum-sealed items were completely clear and looked fresher and more vibrant. Freezer burn is essentially dehydration of food caused by exposure to cold, dry air, so it makes sense that removing as much air as possible would do the trick.

It’s ideal for families. Although the FoodSaver VS2100 is slightly more compact and more affordable than the company’s other full-size models, it’s not a must-buy if you’re usually just cooking for one, unless you frequently sous vide. If your household is bigger and you tend to buy a lot of food with the intention of freezing, a vacuum sealer may make practical sense for you. Storing food will require a bit more time and effort, but you’ll see the difference.

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