Are Reusable Food Storage Bags Really a Good Idea? We Put Them to the Test

Did you know that 20 million plastic sandwich bags are discarded every day in the U.S.? Did you also know that it takes over 500 years for a plastic bag to break down in a landfill? Do you now never want to touch another piece of plastic ever again?

Maybe you should look into getting some stasher bags.

Stasher has been around for a few years but they have been getting a lot of traction recently. Let's break it down for you ... 

What is it?

Stasher is a silicone, reusable bag in which you can store, cook, and freeze food. There are other silicone bags on the market but stasher is the only one that seals by itself without the aid of an additional tool.

Stasher claims to be a healthy alternative to plastic. They are made from 100 percent pure platinum-grade silicone, a polymer made of sand and oxygen. What does “platinum-grade silicone” mean? It was explained to us as being one step better than food-grade silicone. So, not only can you put food in it, you can put your platinum in it? Whatever. It’s top of the line is all you need to know.

The bags are completely heat- and water-resistant and come in three sizes: sandwich, snack, and half-gallon.

Stasher also has a take-back program that will convert old bags into safe playground pebbles.

Is it awesome?

It kind of is.

Ok. Full disclosure: My vegetables were usually thrown into the fridge in the bag it came in. That means there was always a big ol’ plastic grocery store bag with broccoli, kale, celery, and like two lemons all jammed together at the bottom of my fridge. Part of this predicament was due to laziness. But, honestly, a huge other part was due to a lack of understanding of how putting my vegetables in individual toxic bubbles would be better for them. Yes, that’s how I saw storage bags: toxic bubbles.

Stashers, on the other hand, felt like safe places for my vegetables. I believed the stashers would take better care of my vegetables than I could — and they did. Everything stayed fresh and crunchy for days.

I threw some leftover raw meat into a bag, squeezed all the air out, and froze it with little fuss. There was no freezer burn at all ... unlike the meat next to it which formed ice crystals even though it was cling wrapped five times and in two freezer bags.

I don’t have a sous vide machine (yet) or a microwave so I didn’t get a chance to cook with the bags. But I, in the spirit of being a good reviewer, did throw it in some boiling water for a few minutes and it came out perfectly fine. So check, check, check on everything it claims.

Are there drawbacks? 

At first, the prices may seem high: The half-gallon bag will cost you $19.99, the sandwich bag comes in at $11.99, and the snack bag is $9.99. That’s each. But if you go through plastic bags like tissues, these would make for really good investments. You'll end up saving a lot of money in the long run.

Should I get it?

If you care about buying organic, sustainably-grown foods, it just makes sense that you would want to stop storing all that nice produce in toxic bags. 

You’re thinking: I use glass and stainless steel containers for my storage and I’m totally happy with them. Well, then, maybe you don’t need stasher. But the glass is not very portable, is it? Do you really have a Ball jar big enough to store vegetables? Just saying, one or two of these would probably come in handy, even if you do love your glass storage.

Final takeaway: totally worth the money.