How to seal a zip lock bag without letting air in

Zip lock bags are a wonderful invention! Great for storing sandwiches or left over fruits and vegetables to eliminate waste. But, I find that sometimes no matter how much you try, you just cant squeeze all of the air out.

Well, here is a little trick we found to turn any ordinary zip lock bag into the closest form of vacuum seal possible (without the expensive machine). All you need is a zip lock bag and a straw.

• Place your item in the bag (for us this was half of a lime).
• Seal the bag but use your finger to pry open a small section of the seal in the middle.
• Place your straw through this gap, sealing as close as you can around it.

• Suck the air out of the bag as fast and as much as you can. When you get towards the end of your lung capacity start to pull the bag away from you so the straw comes out and use one hand to press the seal together as the straw comes out.

Now you have a very close seal! You can see from the two pictures the difference between the amount of air in the bag. If you don’t have a straw handy you can use this technique with just your mouth around the bag, but we find the straw easier.

See the difference between attempting to squeeze all the air (left) and then the straw method (right)

Will you try it?

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