Vacuum bag heat sealing machines serve a host of purposes and allow you to safely package food, pharmaceutical goods and other materials into tightly-sealed bags with the air removed from the inside. There are many different vacume bag sealing machines on the market to suit a wide range of requirements and budgets, they are often referred to as vacsealers. These vac sealer machines fall into two main categories;

• Internal or chamber vacuum sealers; the bag is placed inside the chamber where the  air is removed using a vacuum pump, ideal for smaller products
• External, nozzle or probe type machines are ideal for larger plastic bags.

Vacuum packing removes air or oxygen from the package prior to sealing. This involves placing the product in a plastic bag, removing air from the inside, and sealing the pack.  The purpose of vacuum packing is to remove oxygen to extend the shelf life of foods and or reduce the size of the package.

Aerobic bacteria requires oxygen so the aim of vacuum packing is to remove this oxygen from inside the bag to reduce the growth of the bacteria slowing down decay. Vac packing is therefore used for fresh or dried foods to extend the shelf life for vegetables, meats, fish, nuts, cooked meat, cheese, coffee, etc.

Vacuum sealers are also used to prepare food for the French gourmet Sous Vide cooking method where ingredients are vacuum sealed in a bag that is cooked in hot water under controlled conditions.

Vacuum packing can be used to reduce the volume of non-foodstuff items, like example, pillows, cushions, clothing and ink cartridges.

The level of vacuum can be controlled to prevent damage to delicate items like potatoes crisps and the oxygen can also be replaced with an inert gas like nitrogen in order to reduce exposure to bacteria.

Vaccum, vaccuum, vacume, vacum, vacumm, vacume and even vcm are common misspellings of vacuum!