Vacuum Packing for Artisan Food Producers: A Practical Guide

Most small food businesses come to vacuum packing the same way: a market stall or a farm shop, product that's selling, and a growing pile of stuff that's going off before it's sold. Vacuum packing fixes the pile. This is the setup guide we'd give a friend starting out, with real prices.

Step 1: the machine, and the mistake to avoid

There are two kinds of vacuum sealer and they take different bags. An edge sealer (FoodSaver and the like, £30 to £300) grips the open end of a textured bag and sucks. A chamber machine (from about £500 new, £700 to £1,500 used for a Henkelman Boxer or Orved VM) takes the whole bag inside and closes a lid.

For a business, buy the chamber machine, even a used one. Three reasons: the bags cost a third as much, it handles liquids and marinades, and the vacuum is deep enough for a proper shelf life. The chamber vs edge sealer guide does the sums; at 50 packs a day the bag saving alone is around £950 a year.

Our pouches are for chamber machines only. If you already own an edge sealer, they won't work in it, and it's better you know that now.

Step 2: four pouch sizes

Don't buy ten sizes. Start with the ones that cover 80% of what you make and add from the size index later.

Pouch	Per bag	Box	What it covers
160×250mm clear	1.8p	£18.00	Single portions, cheese wedges, bacon, small bakes
200×300mm clear	2.7p	£27.00	500g to 1kg of almost anything
200×250mm parchment	6.8p	£68.20	Retail packs where the label sells: sausages, pies, salami
200×275mm gold	6.4p	£63.60	Retail packs where the product sells: sliced meats, smoked fish, cheese

The two clear boxes come to £45 and cover storage and wholesale. Add one of the retail finishes when you start selling prepacked from a shelf; the retail pouch guide helps you choose which.

Step 3: what it costs per pack

At 2.7p for the everyday pouch, the bag on a £5 product is half a percent of the price. That's the number to remember when a supplier offers you a cheaper bag: even at half the price you'd save a quarter of a penny. The things that actually cost money are packs that fail, so spend the effort on the seal, not on shaving the bag price.

Delivery is free over £120 ex VAT and £7.90 below it, so most producers order every few months rather than every few weeks.

Step 4: the rules that arrive with prepacked food

Once you seal food in a pack and sell it, two things apply that didn't before.

Labelling. Name, ingredients with allergens emphasised, weight, use-by date, storage instructions, your business name and address. The retail guide lists it. Your local Trading Standards office will check a draft label for free.

Shelf life. Vacuum packing extends life, and UK guidance caps it: 10 days at 3 to 8°C for chilled food that could support C. botulinum, unless you can show a controlling factor like salt, acidity or a heat treatment. Cheese, cured meat and chutney sit outside the rule; fresh meat, fish and most cooked food sit inside it. The food safety guide explains how to write it into your HACCP plan.

Step 5: the habits that make packs work

• Pack cold, from the fridge, never from the bench.
• Keep the inside of the pouch opening dry. Fold it outward while you fill.
• Full vacuum on hard product; 90 to 95% on anything soft, sliced or crumbly.
• Press every pack before it's labelled. Tight is right.
• Check the fridge each morning and pull anything that's gone slack.

Growing from here

When volume goes up, the same pouches are still the right ones; you just buy more boxes or move to a trade account with Net 30 terms. Bespoke sizes and printed pouches come later, when you know exactly what sells. The buying direct guide covers what that looks like.