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Are Cheap Mylar Bags Worth It? What You Risk Saving Pennies

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  At first glance, using cheaper Mylar bags seems to make a lot of sense: lower price, easier to get into, less of a commitment to use them. On paper this seems to be a smart decision but once you start seeing the reality of how much you have lost out on…you start feeling dumb. Typically the first thing you will lose on with Cheaper Mylar bags is the quality of the material. Thinner films, weaker seals, and less effectiveness of your barrier protection will cause issues. These will not always show themselves, which make it worse because you won't know about the issues until after your product is outside of your control. Next you will start to lose the durability of the bag. Bags that tear and fail from being “over-pressured” not only create inconveniences for you but create a loss of trust in the customer. Customers do not separate the packaging from the product, for them it is ONE complete experience (like it or not). You will usually see a noticeable loss in printing as well. Col...
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Why Sublimation on Mylar Bags Isn’t Always Straightforward

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  Sublimation seems magical on first glance. You press ink into a surface, heat it, and poof — it sprays on the surface as if it were there all along. No cracking, no peeling, and no funky textures. But then Mylar shows up, and it kind of ruins that whole fantasy. People are always asking the question “Can You Sublimate on Mylar Bags?” But the answer to that question is not a clear-cut yes or no; it’s more like an occasional yes — but only if everything comes together just right. Mylar is not the same as cotton or coated polyester, which are both great for sublimation. Mylar has a lot of different layers and is typically constructed from one or more plastic films and sometimes coated with aluminum foil. That great multi-layered construction is great for providing a complete barrier to protect products, increase shelf-life, and provide durability. But surely, that’s not the best construction for sublimation; therefore; Mylar does not typically accept ink into its fibers or surface a...
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Why Mylar Bags Alone Aren’t Enough for Long-Term Storage

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  Mylar bags help block the most common threats to food freshness (light, moisture and air) but they do not remove any oxygen trapped inside the bag. Therefore, while Mylar will prevent further degradation from threats coming into contact with your food, without removing any oxygen already trapped in the bag your food will degrade in quality (through oxidation) even though the bag is completely sealed. Oxidation continues, although at greatly reduced rates, long after your food is placed in a sealed Mylar bag. Over time, food stored in sealed bags will degrade, and in many instances you will have no warning until you eat the food and realize the decline in quality. For food products that contain oils or fats (e.g., grain products, cereal mixes, etc.), the presence of oxygen in the sealed bag will cause the oil/fats to degrade (i.e., develop off-flavors) which will reduce the food’s nutritional value as well. While the presence of oxygen can limit long-term storage, most people inco...
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Why Amazon Restrictions Created So Much Confusion Around Mylar Bags

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  Much of the fear surrounding Mylar Bags isn’t due to any official government regulation but rather because sellers woke up one morning to discover all their products had disappeared overnight from Amazon without warning. What took place was an unexpected disruption, and disruption happens quickly. Amazon does business differently than any other marketplace. Amazon employs a large number of automated systems for scanning product listings, images, and text using keywords to identify possible violations of the site’s policies. If a product is flagged as violating an Amazon policy, then that item can be removed from the site without notice, regardless of whether or not the seller has been given a violation notice. This is really how Mylar Bags have ended up in trouble. The issue is not with the product itself, but rather how customers have come to associate Mylar Bags with a number of different markets such as cannabis and vaping. As a result of this association, sellers began to vie...
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Custom Stand Up Pouches: Benefits, Uses, and Why Brands Prefer Them

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  Over the past 10 years, packaging trends have changed rapidly and the stand up pouch has gained a lot of market share. These flexible packages utilize a bottom gusset that allows the pouch to sit upright on store shelves, making it easier to display products for customers to see and notice. Industries across food, supplements, coffee, snacks, and even pet products are moving to this type of format because it provides an excellent balance of display and practicality. One of the major benefits of stand up pouches is that they save space in shipping and storage. Flexible packaging uses much less material compared to rigid containers or boxes, allowing it to be compressed more efficiently in shipment. Thus, it reduces freight charges and allows for less square footage in a warehouse. Many brands are investigating the use of custom stand up pouches to reduce packaging costs while maintaining shelf appeal. Stand up pouches also provide excellent protection of products. Most stand up po...
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Can You Seal Mylar Bags with a Hair Straightener? Here’s What Actually Works

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  Sealing Mylar bags without utilizing a commercial heat sealer may sound like an easy alternative, but if you know how to use it right, it can be a valid solution. By using a normal hair flat iron, you will achieve sufficient consistency of heat to melt the internal layers of the Mylar pouch, effectively sealing it tightly enough to block out air and moisture. For small quantities of storage, home storage, and quick packaging needs, this technique tends to be very dependable. The main consideration here is how to manage that balance. Too much heat will distort the plastic, while too little will create weak areas that end up failing. On average, most people have had success using a medium heat setting and they’ve started by testing it on a spare edge first. The process takes more patience than speed; therefore, the technique is all about applying an even, constant pressure along the top edge of the bag throughout the entire sealing process. To start with, it is critical to remove a...
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Why High Barrier Packaging Is Used Across Many Industries

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  In addition to being the external container for the product within, many times packaging is essential to helping keep the quality and safe use of a product as well as providing an extended shelf life. Mylar bags have become a main source of packaging for a variety of different products. Mylar bags are manufactured from a special type of film, which is a type of special polyester film. This film creates a strong barrier to air and moisture. When products are placed inside Mylar bags and sealed properly, the internal storage conditions will remain much more stable than when stored in conventional plastic. This stable environment helps protect the integrity of sensitive components contained within the product. Food manufacturers use Mylar bags to package many snack foods, powders, coffee, and dehydrated products. If the components in these products were not protected with strong barrier layers, they would lose their flavor and absorb moisture from their environment very rapidly. Myl...
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