Vacuum Sealer for Mason Jars

Yes, you can vacuum seal Mason jars for long-term food storage! Mason Jars are the perfect container for dry goods, leftovers in the refrigerator, liquids, and freeze dried foods. In fact, glass jars may be preferable to products in a can, Mylar bag, and especially plastic jars. Glass jars can be reused, where cans and Mylar bags cannot. It's not always a good option to reuse plastic, so cans and plastic usually get tossed (recycled whenever possible) in our household. It can be especially difficult to dispose of used cans/plastic without scheduled curbside garbage pickups or if you live off-grid.

We always keep a plentiful stash of Mason jars (available at Amazon.com) on hand to store our freeze dried foods, and for our homemade cabbage, kimchi, and other fermented food projects.

Reused Glass Jars

Although we do not use for vacuum food storage, we typically try to save and sterilize reused glass jars from things like store-bought spaghetti sauce, jam/jelly, relish, etc. We always save gallon-sized pickle jars that make great canisters/storage for dry goods like flour, sugar, pasta noodles, dried beans, rice, and dog/cat kibble. Smaller reused glass jars are also great for dry goods like spices, dried herbs, popcorn, and rice.

Vacuum Sealing

If you want longer-term storage of your freeze dried foods and dry goods, we highly recommend that you vacuum-seal the jars to ensure freshness. Vacuum-sealing prolongs the storage life of your foods by helping to eliminate the oxygen that breaks down food over time.

Vacuum sealing is a safe method to preserve your freeze-dried and dehydrated foods, as well as dry goods such as rice, beans, flour, and other shelf-stable foods. The jars are not exposed to heat (aka dry canning) — instead, air is vacuumed out of the jars, leaving the food in an optimum condition without the oxygen that is most detrimental to stored foods.

We always recommend adding an Oxygen Absorber prior to vacuum sealing if you want to extend the storage life of dehydrated and freeze dried foods. Oxygen absorbers help to ensure removal of residual oxygen in the jar to keep your long term food preserves freshly stored for many years to come (up to 30 years)!

A 300cc Oxygen Absorber is recommended for jars. Oxygen Absorbers are available at TheEpicenter.com.

Always store your vacuum-sealed jars in a cool, dark place for maximum storage life.

And don't forget to label your jars! Several types and sizes of Jar Labels are available at Amazon.com, but the dissolvable labels are highly recommended!

Important Note: We do not recommend vacuum-sealing or adding an oxygen absorber to sugar or brown sugar; it will turn rock hard and you will not be able to remove it from your jar. Also, don't vacuum seal fresh or cooked foods unless you are planning to keep that jar in the refrigerator for a few days until eating; fresh and cooked foods must be properly canned to store them safely.

Vacuum Sealers

We have typically used the standard "FoodSaver" brand vacuum sealer with the jar-sealer attachment and hose (available at Amazon.com), and it has served us well.

But then we found this hand-held jar vacuum sealer:

• Achieve a perfect vacuum in less than a minute
• No more bulky machines and accessories to mess with
• Reduces clutter! It doesn't take up much storage space when not in use
• No manual pumping
• Cordless and portable
• For Regular & Wide Mouth jars

This handy Mason Jar Cordless Vacuum Sealer is available at Amazon.com.