# Vacuum sealed packages losing...



## inkjunkie (Oct 25, 2015)

The vacuum.  Smoked 15 pounds of cheese for a friend. Sealed them with a Vacmaster Pro350. Sat in our fridge for 4 days prior to being put in a box and shipped from Eastern Washington to Minnesota. When I loaded them in the box they were all still under vacuum.  Shipped thru the USPS,  which means the box ended up in a FedEx air craft. Upon arrival 4 of the above packs had lost the vacuum.  I asked the recipient to inspect all the seals was told they all looked fine. I also checked the 40+ vacuum sealed packs in our freezers, all are still under vacuum. 
If your comment  is going to be an insult towards me because I have no clue why this happened,  kindly move on. I am not asking this to be insulted because I am not as knowledgeable as you are, I am asking because I have several other people who want me to smoke cheese for them and don't want to end up having this problem again...


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## dirtsailor2003 (Oct 26, 2015)

It is possible for items under vacuum to loose their seals do to pressure changes. Canned items especially.  A few years back my wife tried to bring home some boiled peanuts from Alabama. She packed them in her checked bag. When she got home all of her clothes were coated in the liquid that was in the bag.

Good news is your cheese will still be fine.


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## wade (Oct 26, 2015)

I am not sure whether the Vacmaster gives a single or double heat seal. I sometimes lost vacuum in bags when I used my old vac sealer that only had a single seal but once I started giving them a manual second seal the problem went away. It may be as Dirt says that the changes in pressure were sufficient to cause the seal to fail - and the failures can be microscopic and not visible to the naked eye.

You didn't say what grade of bags you were using but it may help to go up to a slightly thicker micron bag for any cheese that you ship as these will handle any changes in pressure better.

I am not saying that either of these will definitely solve your problem but they are things that you can try that may help overcome it.

One last thought... I suppose that it would not be likely that some form of package inspection took place during transport and the packs were punctured by inspectors?


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## sfprankster (Oct 26, 2015)

If you have any farms nearby, ask where they purchase their packaging for their crops. Most packaging companies sell insulated shippers and gel packs you can freeze to insure they arrive cold. 

Ship via Ground(FedEX, UPS, OnTrac) to insure the pressure drop in the plane didn't cause the seal failure. In a month or so, the temperatures across the northern states will be cold enough to not need an insulated shipper.


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## shush shizhe (Oct 26, 2015)

What most likely happened is that during flight, a cargo aircraft isn't pressurized as high as passenger aircraft if at all.  Similar to a balloon going higher, the vacuum seal will expand and possibly burst.  That is just a hunch from working on jets in the Air Force.


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## bmudd14474 (Oct 26, 2015)

Shush Shizhe said:


> What most likely happened is that during flight, a cargo aircraft isn't pressurized as high as passenger aircraft if at all.  Similar to a balloon going higher, the vacuum seal will expand and possibly burst.  That is just a hunch from working on jets in the Air Force.



X2. The seal may look good but could get a pinhole in it from expanding as stated above.


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## pc farmer (Oct 26, 2015)

I have a vacmaster, it has a double sealing bar.  It would lose vacuum too.    I started sealing twice.    4 seal strips.  Works good.


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