Mylar Food Storage Bags.

Storage bags run 4 to 7 mil because they live inside a bucket for years rather than on a shelf for months. A retail pouch is handled a few times and thrown away. A bag in a pail rubs against the lid, the walls and the other bags every time the bucket is moved, and thin film eventually wears through at the corners.

We put one-gallon bags at 4 to 5.5 mil and five-gallon bags at 5 to 7 mil. The bigger bag carries more weight and sees more handling, so the gauge goes up with it.

A heat seal fuses the two films into one, and that is the only closure we trust over a decade. A zipper track is a mechanical fit between two plastic profiles. It reseals well for daily use, but it lets a slow trickle of air through, and over years that trickle undoes the absorber.

You close these with a household iron, a hair straightener or an impulse sealer. The seam should be a clean band about half an inch wide with no wrinkles across it.

Absorbers are sized to the volume of the bag, not to the weight of what goes in it. A one-gallon bag takes a 300cc to 500cc sachet and a five-gallon bag needs 2000cc or more. Undersizing is the mistake we see most often, because the air trapped between the pieces is what the absorber has to deal with.

We supply absorbers alongside the bags so the two are matched from the start. A properly sized absorber pulls the bag tight against the contents within about a day of sealing.

Most storage bags ship as plain silver foil, and we would keep it that way unless you are reselling them. The one finish we do push is a matte write-on panel, because a bag opened ten years later needs its contents and packing date on the outside in pen.

Suppliers packing for retail usually go with single-colour print for the brand and contents. Full gravure print is there if the bag is a retail product in its own right. A clear window is available, but it breaks the light barrier, so we generally talk people out of it.

The trade orders in gallons, and a one-gallon bag works out at roughly 8 x 12 inches while a five-gallon bag is about 20 x 30 inches. A 10 x 14 inch bag sits in between for anyone wanting a two-gallon step. The measurement is flat width by flat length, taken across the sealed edges.

Bucket liners are cut to fit standard pails, so tell us which pail you use and we'll size the bag to drop in with enough film left over at the top for a clean seal.

The floor on a custom run is 500 bags. Plain foil bags and write-on panel versions run at the same minimum, and pricing steps down once you pass the 1,000 mark. We can supply the matching absorbers in the same order so you are not sourcing them separately.

Runs go up to 100,000 pieces if you are packing for resale, and mixed sizes can share an order as long as each size meets its own minimum.

Production takes 7 to 10 business days from approved artwork, or plain foil from confirmed spec. If you need them sooner, a rush slot brings that down to 5 to 7 business days. Samples take 5 to 7 business days to reach you, and the sample charge comes off the bulk invoice when you go ahead.

We recommend sealing a sample with a real absorber and leaving it a day before ordering. If the bag draws in tight, the film and seal are doing their job.

The pail takes the crush and the knocks, and the bag inside only has to hold its barrier. A foil laminate on its own is easy to puncture when a bucket is dropped or stacked five high. Inside a rigid liner it is protected from every point load.

We cut liners to the pail's inside dimensions so the bag sits flat against the wall instead of folding over on itself, since a sharp crease in foil is where pinholes start.