By: Joe Terrell
With the price of groceries these days, you don't want to waste anything. All of us are looking at leftovers a little differently. That's one of the reasons "Does It Work?" is testing the Reyonlds Handi-Vac.
The idea behind the Handi-Vac is to remove air from your frozen storage to eliminate freezer burn. The starter kit gives you the Handi-Vac and three quart-size freezer bags. But they're not just any bags. You'll see in a moment.
It used to be any of these vacuum systems cost a hundred dollars or more. This one was significantly cheaper.
We've assembled some blueberries, pork chops, chocolate chip cookies and a grapefruit for testing.
The bags have a fill line you have to stay below.
We pack each of the foods in separate bags. We cut the grapefruit in half by the way.
Each bag has double "zippers" you close just like any other freezer bag. What these bags have that others don't is a one-way valve that you push the Handi-Vac against. Just push the button on the Handi-Vac and it sucks the air out. Does a good job of it too.
We froze the meat, cookies and blueberries and refrigerated the grapefruit. All stayed inside for three days.
When we removed and thawed them, everything tasted great. There was no sign of freezer burn. The grapefruit tasted just like the other half did three days earlier.
The Reynolds Handi-Vac is an affordable system that should easily pay for itself in food savings within a month.
"Does It Work?" We give it a yes.
We got the Reynolds Handi-Vac Starter Kit at Brookshire's for $8.99. But there was a $3.00 off coupon on the package, so we got out of there for just $5.99.
The bags cost $2.55 per package. Packages consist of 9 gallon bags or 14 quart sized bags.
