When it comes to properly preserving fruits, vegetables and meats, you'll want to ensure your foods retain both their original quality and shape during the sealing process. Thankfully, there are a few tips to keep in mind that can help you preserve your larger or uniquely shaped items. 

Your vacuum sealer can make the process of saving these items a breeze, especially when you remember the following tips while you store your foods.

Know When to Slice
Cutting larger, oddly shaped foods before sealing and saving may be a good idea, as this can prevent larger items from taking up too much storage space. While you can still vacuum seal foods with different structures, it's best to slice larger items, like squash or pumpkin. This way, you can ensure the foods are properly preserved without having to worry about shoving them in storage spaces where they don't fit.

Slicing foods before sealing is also a great way to portion ingredients for easy meal preparation. You won't have to worry about slicing, dicing or wasting foods when they've already been prepared and sealed.

Blanche Cruciferous Vegetables
Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage can be vacuum sealed and frozen for future use, but they must be blanched beforehand. When not treated before sealing, cruciferous vegetables will release gasses that will expand the plastic seal. These additives will ruin the integrity of your seal and cause food to spoil much sooner.

To blanche your vegetables, bring a pot of water to a boil. Place your food in the water, allowing it to boil for three to five minutes, then immediately place in cold water. This process impedes enzymes in the vegetables from working, thus preventing gas from being released. Once the vegetables have been drained and completely dried, you can place them in your vacuum sealer bag. It's important that the vegetables have zero moisture, as the water can also ruin the sealing process.

Cauliflower must be blanched before it's sealed.

Seal Delicate Foods with Finesse
Some of your favorite foods are more delicate by nature. This means when the air is removed from the bag, they may become crushed or otherwise damaged. Closely monitor how much air you remove from the bag - you'll want to leave a cushion of air to allow foods to retain their shape.

Alternatively, you could seal more delicate ingredients in other storage units, as opposed to bendable bags. These include both glass jars and plastic containers, which allow your vacuum sealer to take out the air without changing the shape of the bag.