Em’s opinion (and experience) of Zwilling Fresh & Save

Conscious food management – bit of a posers title but covers it.

I have surprised myself at the change of heart on this range of products. Andrew was waxing lyrical, after seeing them at the Zwilling stand at Exclusively Housewares Show last year. Back then I loved the idea of minimal waste but I said to Andrew I thought it a high price to pay and (rather smugly) I said that we, in our house, didn’t have much food waste, so it wasn’t something I could justify spending money on.

Ah how things can change.

Since buying the pump and a box of the medium vacuum bags I have completely rearranged our fridge at home, cleaned out the sludge in the salad drawer and installed a dedicated cut, fresh herbs box. I’ve also bought more bags and boxes, as I’ve discovered what my particular needs are when it comes to avoiding food spoiling. And yes, we do actually waste food, sometimes because we’ve made something so yummy we can’t bring ourselves to share, or to gobble it all up. So we treasure it and then it dries out or goes mouldy – Andi’s delicious chai carrot cake slices with spiced cream cheese frosting comes to mind.

So here’s what we’ve been doing with the Fresh & Save so far:

We keep sliced ham for sandwiches in a small vacuum bag, instead of using clingfilm and once a pack of bacon is opened, we pop it in a reusable vacuum bag.

I use a small box for mozzarella, the stuff that comes in a bag of liquid, because sometimes I don’t need to use two balls of cheese but haven’t found a good system that stops it drying out, until now.

I pulled up too many carrots at the allotment 3 weeks ago and have saved the glut before they go to liquid stage by having a large box on one side of the salad crisper drawer.

Great for coffee fans because you can keep the freshness in a bag or box and record on the app how old the beans are.

Babette would have like this next angle and that is getting a bargain at the supermarket. She loved finding reduced price ingredients and creating something wonderful, for less. This system allows me to pickup veg that’s about to go out of date and get lots more life out of them.

It’s easy clean the bags and boxes (once you know how), the bags can be turned inside out for a good hot soapy scrub or they can go in the dishwasher, dry inside out and then invert for the next use.

The app is very flexible, you can either use all the functions or pick and choose, or not use it at all, so you’re not forced into doing the full recording thing every time.

Next purchase will be a box for the bread flour I buy for sourdough making, I like Shipton and it’s so natural that weevils love it too. Remove the air and they can’t take up residence.

So I’ve shelled out some money, I’ve found out that I do have room in my life for an easy way to organise the fridge, amongst other uses. And, as long as it's easy and fun to vacuum everything in the kitchen, I’ll eventually save money instead of feeding the kerbside food waste bin.

I’ll report again if/when I have more to share.