meat packaging?

[scubadog]

I am looking for a cost effective way to package cuts of venison.
I have a cheap vaccum packer that is not the best.
I am wanting to pack some larger cuts of meat and the bags this vaccum packer does are pretty poor.

So what other methods do people use?
I have found some overwrap for a reasonable price.
I would have to wrap them buy hand but that's not the end of the world.
Does any one know how well or not overwrap preservse meat when frozen?

What other methods do people use?

 

[Apache]

For mince or diced then a decent tough plastic bag knotted excluding all air is the best. Lakeland bags are expensive but good for this.

For the larger cuts a vacuum sealer is the best by far. Worth paying for decent bags made for these machines with the 'veins' to allow the air to flow around the meat.

 

[RDG]

The main advantage of vac pacing is to prolong the time meat can be stored without freezing. When freezing it does make the package look better and can reduce the forming of excessive 'frosting' of the meat but it isn't overly necessary. The heat sealing of the closing can make life easier aswell, however if your using lighter bags or the heat bar doesn't have enough umph the seal can fail in the freezer and risk frost burn anyway.
Decent poly freezer bags should be fine. Just squeeze out as much excess air by hand before twisting and tying/sealing. There used to be a little hand pump thingy, like a reverse balloon pump, that pulled out the last bit of excessive air, sufficient for freezing.
The overwrap film never seems to work that fantastically. You can get specific freezer film of a heavier gauge but still need to put a few layers on. If in freezer a while it always seems to loosen off enough to allow frost burn and the foam trays crack up when moved around.
So my tuppeny-worth would be just buy decent freezer bags.
Duncan