Do Debbie Meyer Green Bags Really Work?

If you’ve seed the ads for Debbie Meyer Green Bags you no doubt wondered if they really could keep food fresh for as long as they claim. They say that you can keep fruits and veggies fresh for weeks, and they’ll taste just like the day you bought them. This may sound like a good way to save money on wasted food, or to buy foods in bulk when they’re on sale, but only if it works at doing what it says it does.

Overview
The food storage industry has a lot of competitors and it seems each of them has their own take on why food goes bad, and what the best way to store it is. Many people like to use containers, but then are disappointed when the lids don’t seal properly and food goes bad. One of the latest crazes is containers that have vacuum pumps on them, or that seal the container with an airtight seal. That’s where these bags differ, because they don’t claim to create a vacuum of any sort, and they don’t say that they create an airtight environment either.

The Claim
Debbie Meyer claims that her Green Bags keep food fresh because rather than create an airtight seal it lets the ethylene gas out of the bag, which is the cause for them going bad in the first place. By venting the gas, they claim that fruits and vegetables are able to maintain their peak freshness, and not succumb to getting rotten, moldy, or otherwise inedible.

The Hype
The hype comes from the infomercial, showing pristine fruits and veggies come out of the bags after supposedly being stored for weeks. Until you test it for yourself, or see someone conduct a real world test, it could easily be staged. It would be very easy to put fresh fruit in a bag and claim that it’s been stored for weeks, so unless you want to give your blind faith to this, it’s best to remain skeptical until proven otherwise.

The Cost
They’ve got two ways you can order Green Bags. You can get a trial run which costs around 6 and nets you 10 bags in different sizes. This is designed to

let you try them out at the least possible expense, with the thought being that if you like them you’ll be back to order the larger kit. You can of course just go all out and get their bigger package for an extra $20 and this will get you a total of 35 bags. It’s up to you which way you want to go, but even the trial size should last you a while, and let you see whether it’s worth a repeat purchase.

The Commitment
This should be a reduction in the amount of time you spend prepping food for storage. Nothing is quite as handy as a bag, since you don’t have to worry about lids, and you don’t have to try to find the right size. These come in an assortment of sizes so you just grab one and drop the food into it. They should be able to accommodate most sized foods, but obviously some things you’ll have to cut up into smaller pieces to get them to fit.

Evaluation
Green Bags have stood up to real world testing, with many news stations trying them out to let their viewers know if they work or not. Some have actually gone to pretty extensive lengths to test out the claims made in the promo video, recreating the same scenarios and pitting the bags against not storing them at all, or storing them in the packaging they come with. The real test would be whether or not they can keep foods fresher than some of the best vacuum pump storage containers out there.

Even though these bags have shown that they can successfully store fruits and vegetables well past their prime, you should still make an effort to eat them as soon as you can. Fresh fruits especially are meant to be eaten soon after being picked from the tree or plant. Vegetables are the same way, and it doesn’t seem right to buy fresh produce if you intend to store it for weeks. You’d be better off just waiting until you want to eat them and then going to the store or the farmer’s market on the day you plan to eat them.

Final Green Bags Review

Green Bags are getting our

Thumbs Up rating, based on real world testing and users saying that they work pretty well. Like with many products you see on TV, these don’t quite live up to all of the claims that are made, but when you shoot for the moon and miss you still end up among the stars, so you’re still getting a product that provides a lot of value, and can save you money from wasted produce, which can be expensive to buy fresh.

Our Recommendation
Since these have passed the test on a number of occasions, we’re giving the go ahead on them. It’s easy to forget about fresh produce once you buy it, and it can be really frustrating tossing it out when you know you paid extra to buy it fresh. If you know you’ll be storing the food for a while, it’s probably best to buy organic frozen fruits and vegetables, but if you are going to be storing fresh stuff for a week or less, these will keep it looking and tasting great.

What do you think? Do Green Bags work or not?