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My question is: how can I get flat food silicone bags completely dry? (I am talking about silicone bags that are small, flat, and rectangular, similar to the ziploc sandwich bags of pre-eco-aware days.)

When I wash the flat silicone bags and leave them to dry on the drying rack, the inside corners don't dry properly and then develop mould when stored.

Context: I live in the UK (a mostly cold and humid country), and my kitchen does not have heating so it is usually cold and humid there. Leaving the storage bags out in the sun isn't an option, and using towels/paper towels doesn't work well (they leave fluff + don't fully reach the inside corners). The bags are designed not to turn inside out; doing so damages them.

The purpose of using silicone storage bags is

  1. to avoid single-use plastics (so I would prefer solutions that limit unnecessary waste such as paper towels)
  2. to maximise storage (I have a small fridge/freezer so I can't just replace them with food boxes)

One of the types of food I use them for is soup, so it's important that the inside be fully clean.

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    Check around the fridge to see if there is a warm spot to dry things. Learned this for starting yeast cultures.
    – Polypipe Wrangler
    Mar 13, 2022 at 8:20
  • Try with a lint free cloth and keep them in the freezer
    – Caius Jard
    Apr 1, 2022 at 6:10

5 Answers 5

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My current solution (inspired by Acccumulation's idea) is to simply store the clean bags in the freezer!

I wash the bags, shake them (to get most of the water out), then place them in the freezer with a spoon inside (so they don't freeze shut); they're not fully dry, but it doesn't matter. In the freezer, any remaining water turns to ice... and mould doesn't develop. When I'm ready to use the bags again, I just take the spoon out, shake out any ice... and they're ready to use!

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  • I think you've hit on the most practical and least wasteful system for cleaning, storing, and re-using soft-sided re-usable food storage bags. +1 at the very least.
    – Stan
    Apr 15, 2022 at 0:04
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I use a food dehydrator to dry the inside of zip-seal bags that have had water contained within. When opened, they tend to remain that way, "collecting" the warm air from the dehydrator. For smaller bags, you may have to provide a prop within the mouth. The food dehydrator runs between 60-70 °C and the bags take less than two hours to completely dry. It was necessary for me to cut away the center of each of the food trays, leaving the top, providing a large open cylinder. I use it primarily for drying 3D printer filament, but drying the bags is a bonus use.

Re: comment: unless you can be certain of the temperature in the oven, it may result in melted bags. An inexpensive hair dryer on a low setting is likely to provide safer results.

The primary objective is warmer air with movement.

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  • Cool idea, thanks! I don't have a food dehydrator - would a normal oven on low temperature (e.g. on a 'keep.warm' setting) work just as well?
    – ATJ
    Mar 13, 2022 at 18:55
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You could try reusable desiccants and/or a toaster oven. And a long-shot: if you fill the bags with cold air from the freezer, then let it warm to room temperature (or slightly more), the air should start out with less water (the absolute humidity at lower temperatures is lower for the same relative humidity), so that might make it dry more.

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  • ooh, thanks - good idea to try the freezer.
    – ATJ
    Mar 15, 2022 at 15:54
  • Wouldn't the cold bags from the freezer create condensation on the plastic when it contacts room air? With the problem spot in the corners, it would still contain moisture, either from the condensation or from the existing water, yes?
    – fred_dot_u
    Mar 15, 2022 at 20:47
  • @fred_dot_u The idea would be to warm the bags up. And even if there is condensation on the outside, that's much more easily cleaned that the inside.
    – Acccumulation
    Mar 16, 2022 at 5:38
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We've started using silicone covers for everything (the proverbial "food condoms"), which also have wet pockets after having been dishwashed. To completely dry those, I do this:

  1. turn it inside out (so the dirty bits get exposed to the jets)
  2. when the dishwasher is ready, wrap the inside out object in a dishcloth and crumple it a few times. Then turn it inside out and repeat.
  3. leave it inside out to dry on a drying rack for a few hours (or over night if you wish) for the remaining few drops.

We bought quite a few of them so some spend months unused. They come out of the drawer as clean as I put them in, no moulds or other.

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They're silicone and have a high melting point as a result. Turn them inside out and oven dry them a while...

Put them in the lowest part of the oven while you're cooking something else so you aren't running the oven specifically just for them

If any part of them is non silicone, such as a plastic sealing bar, don't oven that part..

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