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You know what is worse than opening your fridge to find nothing to eat? Opening your freezer and not finding any leftovers either!

We love an organized fridge and freezer, stocked with our favorite meal kits and groceries for endless options when it comes time for dinner. However, when days get hectic and cooking is pushed to the side, a few things can happen — food waste if you buy too much and don’t cook it in time, or not having anything to cook and being forced to spend more money on takeout.

That’s why we love vacuum sealers.

“Vacuum sealers remove air so your food stays good for much longer, up to two to three years in some cases,” Kelli Shallal, MPH, RD, dietitian and food blogger at Hungry Hobby, told the New York Post. “You can store the food wherever you would normally store it — this way — but for much, much longer.”

While sometimes that happens to the best of us, there is a small gadget you can buy to help prevent both food waste and lack of easy meals to make. Introducing… the vacuum sealer!

We know this isn’t revolutionary, but it really can be a lifesaver to own, especially for large families who need a quick meal to be thawed and cooked in a snap or for small families who have leftovers and don’t want them to go bad.

Want to learn more? Then before we get cooking, hear from our expert chef Richard Temples, resident chef at Sur La Table, with tips and tricks for how to use a food vacuum sealer, what the best foods to seal are and top brands to buy right now. More, check out our in-depth FAQ section for more intel.

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For a simple and on-sale version, the Nesco VS-01 One Touch Operation Food Vacuum Sealer is budget-friendly without compromising ease of use. It’s a smaller device that fits on the counter and has two options: (1) seal only and (2) vacuum seal.

More, it includes 10 quart-sized bags and 10 gallon-size bags to get you started. It’s also simple to store and is wonderful to grab for your kitchen.

While nearly $350 is a lofty price to pay for a vacuum sealer – this one is worth it. The FoodSaver Elite All-in-One Liquid Vacuum Sealer with Bags, Rolls and Accessories is the Amazon purchase of the century (at least to us), as it comes with everything you’ll pretty much need to keep your food fresh.

With nearly 1,500 gleaming ratings among Amazon shoppers, it features six custom settings — including Dry, Moist, Liquid, Sous Vide, Marinate, and Pulse modes — to allow you to vacuum seal, preserve and prep like a pro.

You’ll also appreciate how its automatic bag detection feature senses when a vacuum seal bag is in place (we can’t believe this, either!), and automatically closes — and securely locks the machine — so you can begin the process of food preservation.

Grab the Trrisaun Handheld Vacuum Sealer — a worthy pick if you’re on a budget or want to save space (or both). It’s a portable and ergonomic vacuum sealer that’s also — drumroll please — rechargeable. It’s a fan-favorite on Amazon for being convenient to use and getting the job done.

More, the food vacuum sealer has manual mode and automatic mode. You can press for three seconds to enter the automatic mode; it will automatically stop when the air is completely sucked out of the bag.

Budget-friendly and equipped for beginners to the product, the BonsenKitchen Dry/Moist Vacuum Sealer Machine is what we recommend, first and foremost. It’s compact enough to fit inside your cabinet and clad with more than 7,500 rave reviews on Amazon alone.

Also, it only takes 10 to 12 seconds to complete the food vacuum sealing. This model is easy to operate with five buttons to ensure your food is fresh and safe. Impressively, it’s said to keep food fresh for eight times longer than normal storage methods.

Ahead, find expert-backed commentary from our team of professional chefs and meal prep experts.

We hope this part is pretty self-explanatory, but a vacuum sealer for food simply sucks the air out of the storage bag, making the food inside last longer since it is no longer exposed to air or the elements in the fridge or freezer. Some may think these are the same as a heat sealer, but there are a few key differences as explained by Temples.

“Vacuum sealers work solely on extracting air from the bag before sealing with heat along the edge,” Temples said. “Heat sealers or Cryovac’s work by creating negative pressure in a chamber and forcing the air out before sealing with heat on the edge.”

More, they’re pretty powerful and a more sustainable gadget to keep in your kitchen arsenal.

“Air spoils foods by exposing them to microorganisms and allowing moisture loss,” Kelli Shallal, MPH, RD, dietitian and food blogger at Hungry Hobby, told The Post. “Vacuum sealers remove virtually all of the air, preventing food from spoiling.”

When faced with a freezer full of food, what can you vacuum seal? And more importantly, what foods should you eat fresh and not seal? We asked the expert, creating a chart below:

Foods to vacuum seal: “I really like to seal meats that are bought in bulk that I want to freeze.  Outside of that you can seal pastas/grains, soups/stocks, nuts or chocolates.  I have even vacuumed sealed important documents at home since Houston loves to flood!”

More, you can use a vacuum sealer on much more than you think, per Shallal. “Pretty much any food or food product can be vacuum sealed,” she says. “If you make a big batch of something like homemade baby food or chili, you can vacuum seal smaller batches that you can use one at a time. You can buy more in bulk, even meat, without worrying if it will go bad.  For example, buy a bunch of chicken breast in bulk, vacuum seal them and use them all month.”

Foods to not vacuum seal: “Foods that are easily prone to mold/bacteria shouldn’t be sealed.  This can be mushrooms, soft cheeses and more. You should also not seal vegetables that emit gas, like broccoli, arugula, garlic and onions. And never seal your favorite delicate cookies or pastries as the pressure will just crush them.”

Now that we’ve convinced you to get a vacuum sealer to prevent food waste, how do you go about choosing one? There are many sizes and price-points on the market, so make sure to keep your budget, family size and counter space in mind.

“Everyone cooks in different ways and quantities. You should always look for the right size machine for your household needs. Some small more compact varieties (like Zwilling Fresh n Save) use just a handheld vacuum pressed to a port in a bag or glass container while larger varieties (like Food Saver) can automatically size a bag and seal it for use in multiple sizes,” suggested Temples. “I would also always look for a large liquid reservoir.  Inevitably some liquid will come out during the sealing process, and you don’t want that going all over your counters.”

Another quick tip before the shopping recommendations: “Just to make sure that you clean and sanitize your sealer after each use,” said Temples. “As most of us use these for raw ingredients, you don’t want to run the risk of contamination when storing and the next use. 

Pro tip: Always place the machine slightly higher than your sealing bag when liquid is involved. This will help prevent spills. You can also place your bag on a cookie sheet as a second layer.

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