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Commercial Vacuum Packing Equipment

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Vacuum packing equipment pulls the air out of a bag and seals it, so a kitchen can portion ahead, store it longer, freeze it without freezer burn and cook sous vide. A commercial food vacuum packing machine is the prep step for all of that, and which one you need comes down to whether you pack dry portions or anything wet.

The range has two halves. Vacuum sealers are the machines, in external suction and chamber formats, and food vacuum bags are the consumable, which has to match the machine you choose. Our range includes small benchtop sealers for a prep bench up to large chamber machines for a production kitchen, so you can buy the size that suits your business at its current size, then size up as your business grows.

Downstream, sealed product goes into sous vide baths for cooking, through a blast chiller for rapid cooling, or into cold storage. Upstream it is fed by meat processing equipment and portioning on the prep bench.

A chamber machine is a significant purchase for a small kitchen, so Silverchef Rent-Try-Buy is worth looking at while you prove the volume. Every model's figures sit on its own product page and in our specifications information.

These are the top FAQs for Commercial Vacuum Packing Equipment

External sealer or chamber machine?

An external suction sealer clamps the bag mouth and draws air out through it, which is cheaper, smaller and fine for dry product. A chamber machine puts the whole bag inside and evacuates the chamber, which handles liquids and gives a deeper, more consistent vacuum.

Liquid is the deciding factor. If you pack braises, marinades, stocks or anything wet, the external sealer will pull the liquid into the seal and fail, and you need a chamber machine. The vacuum sealer range covers both.

Which bags go with which machine?

Embossed or channelled bags for an external sealer, smooth bags for a chamber machine, and they are not interchangeable. A smooth bag cannot be evacuated by suction through the mouth, and an embossed bag in a chamber is wasted money.

Work out the bag sizes you need at the same time as the machine, because you will be buying bags for as long as you own it. Our food vacuum bag range lists which style each product is.

What does vacuum packing actually extend?

Storage life in the fridge and the freezer, because removing oxygen slows oxidation and freezer burn. It is not a substitute for refrigeration and it does nothing for anything that has already started to go.

The specifics are a food safety matter for your own plan and for the product, so build the shelf life into your procedures rather than taking a figure from a brochure. What the equipment reliably delivers is the seal, not the shelf life.

Can I pack liquids?

In a chamber machine, yes, and that is the main reason kitchens upgrade to one. In an external sealer, not reliably: the suction draws liquid up the bag and into the seal, and the seal fails in storage rather than on the bench.

Chilling liquid product hard before packing helps in either machine, because cold liquid is less mobile. For anything that has to be packed hot, a chamber machine with a suitable programme is the only sensible option.

Does the kitchen need anything else to cook sous vide?

A bath or a circulator, a probe and a way of chilling the product afterwards. Vacuum packing is the preparation step; the cooking happens in a sous vide circulator and the cooling in a blast chiller.

The chilling step is the one most often skipped and the one that matters most to food safety. Plan the whole chain before you buy the sealer, because a sealer without a chilling route creates a problem rather than solving one.

How much space does a chamber machine need?

A dedicated bench position, clearance for the lid to open fully and a surface that can take the weight, which on a larger chamber machine is considerable. Benchtop chamber machines are heavy for their footprint.

Keep it at the cold prep end rather than on the cookline, with cold storage close by. A run of stainless steel bench and an under bench fridge either side makes the packing station work.

What maintenance does vacuum packing equipment need?

Seal bar and seal strip replacement as they wear, chamber gasket replacement, and on oil-pump chamber machines an oil change and a regular purge cycle on the manufacturer's schedule. None of it is difficult, all of it is necessary.

Ask what the consumables are and whether they are stocked for the model before you buy, because a machine waiting on a seal strip is a machine the kitchen has to work around. The wear parts for each model are listed with the product.

Is vacuum packing worth it for a small kitchen?

Usually, and the argument is waste. Portioning into bags means product gets used in the amount it was prepped in, instead of sitting in a half-used container until nobody trusts it.

Start with an external sealer and dry product if the budget is tight, and move to a chamber machine when liquids become the limit. Silverchef Rent-Try-Buy covers the step up when it comes, and gastronorm containers still handle everything that is better stored open.