Benefits of Vacuum Sealing vs. Waxing for Cheese Products

Wax has been used as a way to create a seal around cheese for hundreds of years. Prone to spoiling when exposed to air, a cheese that has been sealed with wax will last much longer than a cheese left unwrapped.

Cheeses sealed with wax are more easily shipped, stored, and are easier to sell than a cheese left sitting exposed to the elements. And no one debates any of that.

But while waxing cheese products may have been the best way to seal and protect them in times past, it is now outdated thanks to new technology!

Today, by far the best way to safely, reliably, and securely seal a cheese product is to use a vacuum sealer.

The cheese maker who embraces the modern technology of a vacuum sealer machine is saying, “Yes” to offering their customers fresher, tastier, and safer cheeses.

What exactly is a vacuum sealer?

First let’s talk about how the vacuum sealing process works: it is overall a simple and intuitive system.

You first select the type of films or polymers you want to use to create your packaging. For many foodstuffs, a clear film is the best choice because it shows off your product, making it more enticing to prospective buyers. With some foods, though, and many cheeses, you may want to opt for an opaque film or foil that will keep the sun from affecting your product.

One you have your film or foil chosen, you place your item — in this case a chunk, wedge, or ball of cheese, of course — between the sheets of film.

Then you seal one end of the package using the quick, safe, and easy heat sealer built into your vacuum sealer. Then the vacuum portion of the mechanism removes all the air from around your cheese, creating an airtight seal that will prevent spoiling. Last, one more quick, durable heat seal, and you are left with a chunk of cheese safely locked away in a custom sized package that will protect it from the elements and air during shipping, storage, and sale!

While waxing cheese was long the standard way to protect it, anymore using this method of sealing is actually a step backward thanks to vacuum sealer technology.

There are many reasons that a vacuum sealed piece of cheese is simple a better piece of the same cheese sealed with wax. Let’s look at a few of them:

Airtight seals – a vacuum sealer creates a reliably durable seal every time it seals a package shut. There is no guesswork to be done on how thick the layer of wax (or other type of sealant) might be when you use a vacuum sealing machine, because you pre select the type of film you want to use as your seal.

Less risk of spoiling – while a wax seal can prevent most air from reaching a cheese if it is thick enough and even enough, a vacuum sealer can prevent any air at all from reaching your product. And what’s more, while a wax seal could potentially trap some air in with a cheese product, hastening its spoilage, a vacuum sealed package has had all the air actively removed from it.

Ease of use – a vacuum sealing unit can be quickly and easily operated after just a little bit of training, yet you will get the same great, professional looking packaging each and every time. When trying to seal a cheese using a wax, you will be prone to get irregularities in the finished packaging, making your product look less appealing to customers by no fault of its own!

Reliability — a wax sealed cheese cab easily be compromised by being poked or scratched, and will easily expose the cheese within it if these things happen.

A vacuum sealed film is far stronger than a wax seal could ever be.

This type of packaging will stand up to pokes, prods, scratches and drops.

Aesthetic appeal — you may think that a cheese sealed in wax will look better than a cheese in another type of packaging, but actually that’s not true for two reasons. The first is that with a vacuum sealer, you can choose your sealing material, so you can figure out what is the right packaging for each individual cheese. And second, when it comes time to eat that delicious cheese, which would you rather have: a cheese that comes quickly and cleanly out of its packaging, ready to eat, or a cheese that you need to slice layers of wax away from to make edible, and that might end up with little bits of wax or color stains on your food!?