Best Mylar Bags for Long-Term Food Storage
When it comes to food storage, a few key storage solutions can help you extend your shelf life. One small but mighty storage solution is the mylar bag. These incredible and inexpensive pouches protect your food stores from light and air to maximize their shelf life. And the best mylar bags do it reliably and are ridiculously easy to use. There are several options to consider when it comes to mylar bags: thickness, features, quality, etc.
This is where we come in. We’ve researched the best mylar bags, tested them, and now the results are in: the overall best, a beginner option, and a bulk storage option. If you need to keep your food from spoiling over the long term, one of our recommendations will keep you stocked.
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In this latest update of the best mylar bags, we added more pictures, more test results, and adjusted prices. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Disclosure»
Best Mylar Bags
Wallaby 7.5 Mil
Resealable, High-Quality, and Trusted
The brand to beat for food storage materials makes it easy with complete mylar bag kits.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Also available to buy at Wallaby. Use code TRUEPREP for $5 off.
Wallaby makes all food storage easy with their solutions, and mylar bags are no exception. You can easily match up the mylar bags to oxygen absorbers and label the bags easily with the included kit components. The quality is great, and they have an awesome customer service team if you have any issues (which we found rare in our research).
Specifications
- Includes: 30 bags, 30 labels, 30 oxygen absorbers
- Thickness: 7.5 mil food-grade mylar (each side)
- Features: Zipper closure, tear notches, stand-up gusset
- Size: 1 gallon (10″ x 14″)
I use these bags both in and out of buckets for long-term food storage of dehydrated, freeze-dried, and dry bulk food. After years of using Wallaby 7.5 mil bags, I’ve never had a failure in storage and have been able to reliably seal every one. When I first started, I used a hair straightener to seal, but I have since picked up an impulse sealer that seals them in about 4 seconds each.
Pros vs. Cons
The bags are durable, and as thick as you can find with each mylar layer at 7.5 mil, which I verified during testing. The quality has an advantage over the competition with a larger side seam and better customer service. The stand-up gusset makes them easy to fill, and the zipper is effective as long as you don’t accidentally seal it below the zipper line. They come in a large plastic bag, which makes them easy to store, and the exact matching amount of labels and 400cc oxygen absorbers is convenient.
Some drawbacks include the higher price at about $1 per mylar bag. It’s also a 1-gallon only kit, so you don’t get a size variety if you are looking to branch out beyond bulk food storage in your pantry.
How I Tested
Besides my anecdotal account of Wallaby 7.5 mil bags lasting years without issues on the shelf, I did a lot of measuring and testing to see how they stacked up against the other options.
Test Results
- Mylar Thickness: 7.5 mil, measured with a micrometer
- Side Seam: 0.40″, measures with digital caliper
- 1-Gallon Bag Weight: 42 grams, measured with a scale
These results support and match my experience that Wallaby 7.5 mil mylar bags are the best available.
Pick up Wallaby 7.5 Mil 1-Gallon Mylar Bags to make long-term food storage easy.
Starter Mylar Bags
Symynelec Combo Pack
Size Variety, Inexpensive, and Effective
This combo pack will let you hit the ground running with bags fit for long-term storage, MREs, and snacks.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Combo packs aren’t anything new, but Symynelec includes many of the features that make this kit great for beginners. The stand-up gusset, zip closure, easy sealing, and included accessories make this box of bags a solid value.
Specifications
- Includes: 100 bags, 112 labels, 55 oxygen absorbers
- Thickness: 5.9 mil food-grade mylar (each side)
- Features: Zipper closure, tear notches, stand-up gusset
- Size: 1 gallon (35), 1 quart (45), 1 pint (20)
The bags come in over the 5 mil threshold for good food storage, and they performed slightly above average through testing and in my measurements.
Pros vs. Cons
All of the features you might expect on a high-quality brand are here- the zip closure and the stand-up gusset are remarkably similar. The bags seal relatively quickly using an iron or impulse heat sealer since they are close to 5 mil thick.
One drawback is that there are plain errors from the manufacturer on the listing- the bags are larger than they list, and the mylar is thicker than they list on one website listing. This is odd because they list the correct combined mylar thickness but understate their single-wall thickness, which I verified in testing.
How I Tested
Symynelec is a new brand for me- there are plenty of Chinese-brand mylar bags out there, and I had used only SHXWell before with mixed results. So, after they appeared to be a good deal after researching the options, I ordered a pack and put the bags through the paces.
Test Results
- Mylar Thickness: 5.9 mil, measured with a micrometer
- Side Seam: 0.26″, measures with digital caliper
- 1-Gallon Bag Weight: 34 grams, measured with a scale
These aren’t the best mylar bags, according to the data, but they represent a good value for beginners and those looking for variety in a mylar bag kit. The mylar thickness is over the 5 mil limit for good food storage, and the side seam is only slightly above average.
Still, the Symynelec Mylar Bag Combo Pack is an excellent value for beginners or anyone else who needs a variety of sizes that still perform.
Bulk Storage Mylar Bags
Wallaby 5 Mil
Bulk Priced, High-Quality, and Trusted
If you go down in thickness and up in quantity, you can seal a lot of food for relatively cheap.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Also available to buy at Wallaby. Use code TRUEPREP for $5 off.
If you give up the zipper closure, some thickness, and the stand-up gusset, you can get our top pick down to around 50 cents per bag. I wouldn’t suggest going below 5 mil, as you may see with other bulk options online, because those thicknesses become less reliable for long-term storage.
Specifications
- Includes: 75 bags, 80 labels, 80 oxygen absorbers
- Thickness: 5 mil food-grade mylar (each side)
- Features: Tear notches
- Size: 1 gallon (10″ x 14″)
The stripped-down bags are still high-quality and are perfect for loading up in your prepper pantry or food storage buckets. They include some accessories, in labels and oxygen absorbers, which can be convenient.
Pros vs. Cons
The big benefit to going this route is the price. You can save quite a bit of money if you don’t need the stand-up gussets and zipper closures, which I find myself rarely needing when I tap into my emergency food supply. It beats discount brands in cost-per-bag, and was only beaten in that metric during our research by mylar bags with less than 5 mil thickness.
The drawbacks are that these bags are more fragile at only 5 mil, the minimum thickness for reliable food storage. Since they don’t have the stand-up gusset, you’ll need to fill them lying flat. This can make it difficult to maximize the storage capacity of the bags, but using a spatula or other clean utensil to push the prepared food in can help.
How I Tested
These Wallaby bags shed 33% of their thickness and even more weight by losing the gusset and zipper seal. The side seam measured the same, though, which is nice, and will help prevent bursting or leaks during transportation or storage once they are filled.
Test Results
- Mylar Thickness: 5.0 mil, measured with a micrometer
- Side Seam: 0.40″, measures with digital caliper
- 1-Gallon Bag Weight: 24 grams, measured with a scale
They are great if you have additional protection for the bags in your pantry or by storing them in buckets. If you are getting serious about food storage, the bulk route is the way to go.
Pick up Wallaby 5 Mil Mylar Bags to make long-term food storage cost-effective.
Comparison Table
| Mylar Bags | Recommendation | Price* | Quantity | Size | Mylar Thickness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wallaby 7.5 Mil | Best Overall | $30 | 30 | 1 Gallon | 7.5 Mil |
| Symynelec Combo Pack | Best for Beginners | $30 | 100 | Various | 5.9 Mil |
| Wallaby 5 Mil | Best for Bulk Food Storage | $36 | 75 | 1 Gallon | 5 Mil |
| Discount Mylar Bags | $17 | 25 | 1 Gallon | 5 Mil | |
| ShieldPro 3.5 | $19 | 60 | 1 Gallon | 3.5 Mil | |
| Millionka | $20 | 50 | 1 Gallon | 4.3 Mil | |
| SHXWell Extra Thick | $23 | 30 | 1 Gallon | 7.5 Mil | |
| Home Sensei | $25 | 30 | 1 Gallon | 7.5 Mil | |
| Saviki | $26 | 50 | 1 Gallon | 4.7 Mil | |
| PackFreshUSA | $30 | 50 | 1 Gallon | 7.5 Mil | |
| Harvest Right | $30 | 50 | 1 Gallon | 7 Mil | |
| SHXWell Combo Pack | $36 | 100 | Various | 5 Mil | |
| ShieldPro 7 | $43 | 50 | 1 Gallon | 7 Mil | |
| Top-M | $60 | 100 | 1 Gallon | 7 Mil |
The Bags We Compared
Our research narrowed the field down to several pouches that we compared: Wallaby, Home Sensei, SHXWell, Harvest Right, PackFreshUSA, ShieldPro, and more.
You can see our full list of review criteria below in the What to Look For section, with an explanation for each.
We focused on food-grade mylar bags exclusively and narrowed down our testing to a common size (1 gallon) for comparison purposes. Most of the brands we encountered offer a wide range of sizes for a variety of applications. We did not consider plastic freezer bags or reusable containers, since those are separate storage solutions for different food storage applications.
We’re always looking for new and better equipment, so if you have mylar bags that you swear by, let us know in the comments. We review most of our tested gear annually, so we can always get it in the next roundup and see if it makes the cut, and we can see if it will beat out our top picks.
What to Look For
The best mylar bags have several important features to look for:
- Value
- Mylar Thickness
- Features
- Size & Weight
- Quality
When you get the right blend of these, you can find mylar bags that will give your sealed food an enormous shelf life. Below, we break down what each of these features means for the mylar bags that set themselves apart.
Value: Cost vs. Benefit
The amount of money you spend on something like mylar bags shouldn’t blow out your entire budget. Don’t go overboard or overdo it. Budget according to your risk and your needs, rather than just spending lavishly.
On the flip side, you don’t want to go too cheap or just plain get the wrong thing. Plastic freezer bags in your pantry are a bad look and will let light and air accelerate your food spoiling. Get the correct tool for the job.
You never want to spend too much money on one resource, especially something like food storage accessories. It’s better to diversify your preparedness gear to make sure you are covered for a wide range of scenarios. There is a sweet spot where you get high value with not too high a price, which is where our top pick sits.
Mylar Thickness
Thicker mylar bags may be tougher to heat seal, but they definitely have their benefits too. 5 mil is the minimum thickness you should consider for long-term food storage. Anything less than that is known to be more easily compromised by air and sun exposure in the long run.
Stand-up bags with thicker walls are easier to fill, are tougher to puncture and tear, are more rodent-proof, and can even block radiation according to scientific studies (sorry, we’re not testing this one).
We found pretty convincingly that the thicker the mil of the mylar, the better. There are very few drawbacks to thicker bags, with most of the drawbacks having easy workarounds. For instance, thicker bags are harder to open when sealed, but most people should have a knife or scissors handy.
Features
There are many features that come with mylar bags, but there are a few standout features as well. You can find them with:
- Windowed sides – avoid these as light can get through
- Included labeling stickers – nice to have, but not a necessity
- Included oxygen absorbers – nice to have, but you’ll likely need more. (see our best-reviewed oxygen absorbers)
- Tear notches – a great feature, but we all know these don’t work 100% of the time.
The features that you really want to find in your mylar bags are:
- Stand-up design – a bottom gusset to let you fill the bag while it stands on its own
- Resealable zipper – you can still heat-seal the bag above the zipper, but then have a reusable pouch once you open it.
My first two suggestions sport these two bottom features, and they are very handy to have while you are filling the pouches or when you are opening and using the pouches.
Size & Weight
Size is a preference when it comes to mylar bags- one size isn’t necessarily better than the other. Most suppliers offer mylar bags in a range from pint-sized all the way up to 5 gallons. I’ve found that 1 gallon hits the sweet spot of good storage volume for the effort and supplies needed, balanced with serving size convenience.
Some preppers like to get the 5-gallon bags, put them in a 5-gallon bucket, and then enjoy a double seal. The issue with this plan is that you can’t divvy up the food, and you expose it all once you pop the seal. Putting five 1-gallon bags inside a 5-gallon bucket is the preferred option because of this.
I weighed the bags as more of a quality check. Despite measuring the thickness with a micrometer, cheaper manufacturers can have variations in thickness (usually towards the lower quality tolerance to save costs). Weighing the entire bag and looking at my measurements versus the expected weight is just one way I considered quality.
Quality
Quality with mylar bags hinges on the materials used, the manufacturing methods, and the after-sales service. Besides the various thicknesses you may find, the first two areas are similar across many of the brands. Well-trusted brands, like Wallaby and Harvest Right, do have exemplary customer service teams, which show through their product support and reviews.
The side seams are the second quality indicator, so I measured the seams with calipers during testing. The average side seam is approximately 1/4″ across all of the brands, with some sealing more surface area than others.
How to Use Mylar Bags
Mylar bags have a wide variety of uses and are more versatile than you may expect. You can use resealable mylar bags to store food, but you can also use them with a heat sealer (or even a clothes iron or hair straightener) to better seal the bags for longer periods.
Expert Tip: Mylar bags are NOT Faraday bags. Check out our Faraday bag review roundup if you are interested in protecting your electronics.
Don’t overfill the bags so that you have room to compress them to remove air. It is often a good idea to use oxygen absorbers to make sure that the food lasts even longer.
Here are our NC neighbors at Guildbrook Farms with some more details on using mylar bags for food storage:
Who Needs Mylar Bags?
Mylar bags are an excellent food storage solution that can extend food shelf life. Everyone needs food stability, and stored food with a long shelf life is a major component of that.
Mylar bags should be considered for your food storage, which is also an integral part of the broad:
They are especially useful if you have bulk food storage, a heat sealer, and a food storage plan.
How We Review Products: We research thoroughly before selecting the best products to review. We have vast prepping and survival experience and bring in outside experts when needed. Hours on end are spent testing gear in stressful conditions and using specialized testing gear to verify claims. We assign performance criteria and impartially rate each tested item. Learn more about how we test.
Sources & References
All of our experience and the testing we do to determine the best mylar bags is useless without listing our research sources and references. We leaned on these for the book knowledge that we paired with our hands-on testing and practical military and prepping experience:
Angelini, P., et al. (1975). Effect of irradiation on volatile constituents of stored haddock flesh. Journal of Food Science. Volume 40. Issue 1. Pages 197 – 199. (Source)
Cooper, G., et al. (1979). Submicron Aerosol Losses in Aluminized Mylar Bags. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. Volume 18. Issue 1. Pages 57 – 68. (Source)
Li, Y., et al. (2014). Transportation of Perishable and Refrigerated Foods in Mylar Foil Bags and Insulated Containers: A Time-Temperature Study. Journal of Food Protection. Volume 77. Issue 8. Pages 1317 – 1324. (Source)
Conclusion
Mylar bags are a food storage marvel and are a great resource to extend your pantry shelf life. Prevent air from entering, light from spoiling, and plastic from leeching with space-age technology cheap enough to pack your food in.
Here are a few related articles our readers have also found helpful:
- Best Impulse Heat Sealer for Food Storage
- The Best Oxygen Absorbers for Food Storage
- Survival Food List | Pantry Stockpile Plan and Checklist
See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.
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I just wanted to comment on your mylar bag thickness comparison. It seems that, according to the descriptions in the Amazon links, the Home Sensei is 14.8 mil for both sides together, Vonhen is 9.4 mil for both sides together (refer Q&A section), and Wallaby is 7 mil for one side, so 14 mil for both sides together (refer Wallaby website). I think this is some cheeky marketing to deceive customers. This means that the Home Sensei and Wallaby are almost identical thickness. I don’t think then, that the Home Sensei is actually twice the thickness of other brands, unless those brands are 3.7 mil per side. Also, the 9.4 mil Vonhen, which is actually 4.7 mil per side, would seem to be less than the recommended 5 mil minimum for long term food storage.
Thanks for setting us straight, that is some cheeky marketing! Plus, an impulse sealer would have a tough time sealing 14.8 mil mylar. We’ve corrected the numbers for now but will need to dig deeper and likely change our suggestions. Thanks again!
So, is a 5 mil Mylar bag supposed to mean it’s 2.5 mil per side, or is a 5 mil Mylar bag supposed to mean it’s 10 mil when front and back are combined?
A 5 mil mylar bag would be 10 mil combined.
We updated this when Melissa pointed it out to list everything in thickness per side. Some brands will list combined thickness in their marketing although it’s not standard.
Hi Sean i have used wallaby bags and they are great but I want a 1/4 gallon bag for long term and commercial food use and wallaby don’t do them. What would you recommend?
Wallaby and the other brands we listed have 1 quart options, usually listed as 7″ x 10″ bags. Wallaby has them in 5 mil with gusseting or without.
I would love to buy your bags, but I want to buy them directly from you and not go through Amazon, as I don’t want to support in any way this current administration. Is there anyway I can buy directly from you?
How can i buy directly? i waNT THE 100 PC OPTION.5 GAL, 1 GALLON, ETC. I’ M BOYCOTTING AMAZON AND WALMART.