The EVAK food storage system consists of glass jars with lids which fit perfectly inside them. Glass containers with airtight lids are obviously already readily available, but the EVAK food storage system goes one stage further ... it lets you suck air out of the jar and away from the food.
You simply pour in the dry foodstuff you want to keep fresh – be it coffee, pasta, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, herbs, etc. – and push the lid down as far as it will go without crushing what's inside. Doing this sucks all of the air out of the jar, leaving the food safe and sound in a sealed vacuum. As an added bonus, the design ensures only glass and stainless steel come into contact with the foodstuff, preventing harsh plastics from shortening its shelf-life.
Ed Kilduff of Pollen Design developed the EVAK food storage system on the belief that "the longer your food is exposed to air, the faster it loses its flavor." It works thanks to the inclusion of a twin-valve which lets air out as needed but prevents any air sneaking back in and upsetting the food.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised US$88,000, EVAK is now available to buy. Each jar ranges in price from $19.99 to $29.99. The video below shows EVAK in action, with the air being sucked out of jars containing an impressive range of foodstuffs.
@ David Rochlin This does not cook the contents.
By pushing in the lid you are simply displacing the air in the jar, the air between the dry food particles/pieces is still there, it is not sucked out.
The main advantage of this system is that it removes most of the air rather than leaving a pocket of air above the food, but for dry food, which is what the system is aimed at, the gain is minimal at best. And given that the flow of air through the lid is working against the valve, which will take some level of force to operate, the air left inside the jar is likely to be slightly above atmospheric pressure, not below it.
So, there is no vacuum in this system, no air is sucked out of the jar, it's all hype.
I think people got it wrong because the article SAID it sucks the air away, and they accepted that uncritically.
While a little bit of thought shows the "sucking" idea to be wrong, don't blame them. Blame the quality of the article.
I don't really see what cosmic engineering feat would be required to just add a small lever under the handle that *would* suck a good proportion of the remaining air out after inserting - as well as a means to relaese the vacuum to aid lid removal. So, back to the drawing board, guys! MW
Marilyn