The proper preservation of food supplies is a fundamental aspect of any foodservice business, as it impacts the most important areas of the operation, enabling, for example, the maintenance of quality standards in service and the economic benefits linked to well-planned purchasing.
The technique that allows you to manage food supplies with greater flexibility, preserving them for long periods and storing them safely, is undoubtedly vacuum packaging, a method that currently has no equally effective alternatives.
By vacuum sealing food, the benefits that can be achieved fall into three main areas: the operational and economic aspects of food management, the qualitative aspect related to the service offered—important both in customer relations and in compliance with hygiene regulations—and the ethical aspect, which aligns with reducing food waste through a conscious and careful use of resources.
Vacuum preservation facilitates inventory management while maintaining high quality standards, provides economic benefits across many aspects of the business, and helps minimize food waste.
Besser Vacuum solutions for professional vacuum packaging:
Food management
Proper food management is essential in foodservice and contributes to optimizing procurement and storage processes. Vacuum preservation plays a key role in this area, as supplies that retain their freshness longer require less handling, allowing for better purchasing planning. Thanks to vacuum packaging, it is also easy to portion supplies into bags without compromising the shelf life of the entire product when only part of it is used. This is not the case, for example, with traditional tray storage, where each opening increases the food’s exposure to external agents that can negatively affect its safety.
With vacuum packaging, thanks to extended shelf life and the ability to strategically portion supplies, it is possible to achieve significant economic advantages resulting from:
- More advantageous purchasing methods
- More streamlined and efficient service management
Organoleptic quality and food safety for customers
The removal of oxygen, along with 99% of the air inside the bag, has the following effects:
- Stops oxidation processes
- Almost completely slows bacterial growth
- Prevents the development of aerobic molds
These processes are largely responsible for the deterioration of flavors, colors, and textures in food. Under normal conditions, with traditional preservation methods, they occur very rapidly.
Vacuum packaging also ensures full compliance with hygiene regulations for food storage, enabling practical and safe handling of supplies, keeping foods perfectly separated and therefore avoiding the risk of cross-contamination.
Circular Economy and environmental responsibility
Over the last decade, the issue of plastic has come under global scrutiny. Unfortunately, its use is almost unavoidable in vacuum packaging, which can cast the technique in a negative light. However, when evaluating the environmental impact of vacuum food preservation, it is essential to consider the many advantages it offers—first and foremost, the ability to significantly reduce food waste, whose consequences affect the entire supply chain, from production to distribution.
Food waste is one of the main causes of pollution, effectively nullifying the environmental efforts made throughout much of the supply chain.
The adoption of a sustainable economic model based on responsible consumption—the so-called Circular Economy—is currently the only viable approach to limiting the environmental impact of consumption. This approach requires maximizing material recycling and minimizing waste as much as possible. In the food sector, where spoilage inevitably leads to waste, proper preservation is essential to achieving this goal. At the same time, thanks to new material technologies, it is now possible to preserve and even cook food under vacuum using 100% recyclable bags.