The food saver bags are necessary for long storage. -If you want the best for your expensive foods. When we get a good catch, we fillet right on the dock and put meal portions it thin 'bread bags' with a bit of sea water and knot them. I can fit six meals in a big food saver and just loose an inch or two when opening and re-sealing.
I don't bother with berries, nuts, granola. Those can be re-sealed but also easily washed.
When we open a bag of berries for the week ahead, we just roll it up and secure with a rubber band since they will be eaten soon. Those bags never get cut down, so they are useful again.

I would still give your food saver/zip lock bags a soapy rinse when using those thin market inner bags. No avoiding a tiny bit of food juice transfer as they are not designed for meat storage/freezing.

"Reusing leftover plastic food containers to store items in the freezer may be noble environmentally, but it might not be wise from the perspective of keeping food safely frozen and tasting its best when later heated up and served. Many such containers are designed for one-time use and then recycling, so itâÂÂs not worth risking using them over and over. Likewise, wax paper, bread wrappers and cardboard cartons should not be used to store frozen foods; these types of containers donâÂÂt provide enough of a barrier to moisture and odors and also may not keep food fresh when frozen. Luckily though, many other materials are suitable for use as freezer-safe storage containers, at least according to the National Center for Home Food Preparation. To qualify as âÂÂfreezer-safe,â the Georgia-based non-profit maintains, food storage containers must resist moisture-vapor, oil, grease and water as well as brittleness and cracking at low temperatures, while being durable, leak-proof and easy-to seal. They must also protect foods from absorption of off-flavors or odors. âÂÂGood freezing materials include rigid containers made of aluminum, glass, plastic, tin or heavily waxed cardboard; bags and sheets of moisture-vapor resistant wraps; and laminated papers made specially for freezing,â reports the group." - See more at: http://www.earthtalk.org/earth-talk/safe-freezer-containers#sthash.xrkF1eqe.dpuf

Here is a link that might be useful: safe freezing

Sleevendog--

Thanks for the caution.
I didn't mean to say I use only the thin bags in the freezer EXCEPT for the catfood which is kept for only a month and individual servings are wrapped tightly in plastic and then placed in a large bag. So far the catfood shows no sign of freezer burn since there is very little air in each small pack. I can easily repack into a ziplock freezer bag instead of the large produce bag if there is a problem. Just thought I'd try this and see.

I also I didn't mean to say I don't wash the vacuum bags and ziplock freezer bags, which are the only ones I would ever reuse. When I empty them, there is sometimes a slight odor in them (a sign of some retained material, although slight), but I have yet to see any visible staining. I do ALWAYS wash vacuum bags and ziplock freezer bags with soapy water and a hot rinse after emptying them. I don't reuse any that show staining or retain an odor.

It is just SO much easier to wash the expensive bags if they have been protected by an inner bag. I very seldom have to throw away a vacuum bag any more unless it is not the ziplock kind and has grown too small to use.

Love the vacuum bags with a zipper for access and a "port" for sealing. Don't mind that they cost 80 cents or so if I can reuse them several times, and they are so easy to open, remove an item that is individually wrapped, and revacuum seal the remaining. You might consider them for your fish catches. No need to sacrifice that precious inch or after every opening.

I don't know how often they can be resealed. So far, some have been resealed five or six times and are still holding fine in the freezer.

I just packed 3 qts of turkey and chicken stock. First froze it about 1" deep in 8"pans, broke it into quarters, packed them in the penny fold-top sandwich bags, and then stored them all in two large vacuum ziplock bags. Easy to remove a single cup-sized block and re-vacuum-seal. So much more space efficient and accessible than freezing liquids in 1 qt plastic containers, which I used to do. Much better than pouring the liquid straight into a vacuum bag, which I also have done in the past. Again, a GW idea for which I am grateful.

I am sure the idea of using protective inner bags is widespread. But it never got into my thick head until dcarch posted it.

And, by the way, wish I had access to an occasional catch of fresh fish. My brother fishes summers on the Pacific, out for several days at a time, and my father was an avid recreational fly fisherman. Many, many great means from those two!

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Mon, Dec 9, 13 at 19:03

When I have space available to freeze stock/ broth, I use milk/ cream/ half n' half cartons. All sizes from 1/2 pint to 1/2 gallon. Label them with a Sharpie and staple the top closed. I'm having to can broth here lately because the freezer is stuffed full.

Another advantage to using the sandwich bags inside of a Foodsaver bag is that I'm usually able to pkg pieces of chicken/ individual steaks, etc. without having to pre-freeze. The sandwich bag keeps the meat juices from interfering with the heat seal on the FS bag. With foods that have a high turnover, I just bag with the sandwich bag and then stuff the individuals into a larger Zip-Loc.

Ci lantro
Yup. No more problem with juices. Brilliant. As I said, I know most people knew about doing this, but I darned well didn't.
I'll have to think about dairy cartons. I think I'll stay with freezing the broth in a shallow pan, breaking it into squares, slipping the squares into sandwich bags, and stacking the bags in a big food saver. Really space efficient.
And all related to Dcarch's idea of using an inner bag.

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Mon, Dec 9, 13 at 19:19

I am glad that the method works for you also.

I have no idea how much money and work I have saved over the years. With pre-printed adhesive labels, my freezer looked well organized.

dcarch

dcarch
I'm working on the freezer. You have certainly made it more likely that I will get it organized.

This morning DH brought in some sweet rolls I froze for him, each wrapped in a one-cent fold-over baggie, then all in a ziploc freezer bag and lightly vacuumed to remove excess air but not compress the rolls. Perfect! They can be removed individually as needed and either revacuumed or, if they will all be eaten in a few days, just zipped and returned to the freezer.

Last night I brought in 2 squares of frozen chicken broth, thawed them, added about 1/4 cup of water to bring it to to 2 cups, and cooked some rice. So easy!

I promise you, I think of--and thank--you often.