Package and method of forming the same

A method of forming a hermetically sealed package of individually sealed compartments, which comprises:

• positioning a backing board which is adapted to receive a stack of a plurality of quantities of product, placing a quantity of product on said backing board, positioning a first interleaf sheet in face-to-face juxtaposition to said quantity of product such that said interleaf sheet extends beyond the edge of said quantity of product, securing said interleaf sheet to said backing board by a manually releasable seal that extends along a continuous seal outwardly of the edges of the quantity of product to thereby encapsulate said piece of product in a sealed substantially oxygen free compartment, and repeating the steps of placing a piece of product, positioning an interleaf sheet, and securing said interleaf sheet, until the package contains the desired amount of quantities of product encapsulated in substantially oxygen free compartments, said securing steps being performed by imparting sufficient strength to the seals that product may be dispensed by manually rupturing the releasable seals and removing a number of interleaf sheets corresponding to the desired number of quantities of product, while the remaining quantities of product are residually contained in sealed compartments provided by the remaining sealed interleaf sheets.

A sealed package of individually sealed compartments comprising:

• a stack of a plurality of product slices having opposing major faces, lying in planes parallel with one another and a plurality of oxygen-impermeable members, one of said members overlying each major face of each product slice so that said members and said product slices are disposed alternately in said stack, said members having a marginal portion which extends beyond the periphery of said slices, the marginal portions of said members lying in planes parallel to the planes of said major faces and said marginal portions being secured together by a manually releasable seal that extends completely around the periphery thereof to enclose each product slice in a sealed substantially oxygen free compartment, said seal being sufficiently strong that said product can be dispensed by manually rupturing the releasable seal and removing a number of members corresponding to the desired number of product slices, while the remaining product slices are residually contained in sealed compartments provided by the remaining members.

A method of forming a hermetically sealed package of individually sealed compartments, which comprises:

• positioning an oxygen-impermeable member having a marginal portion which is adapted to extend beyond the edge of a product slice, placing a product slice in face-to-face juxtaposition to said member, repeating the steps of positioning an oxygen-impermeable member and placing a product slice until the package contains the desired amount of product slices, positioning a further oxygen-impermeable member in face-to-face juxtaposition to the last of said product slices, and securing said members together collectively by a manually releasable seal that extends along a continuous seal wherein each member is sealed along a marginal portion thereof to an adjacent member to thereby encapsulate each product slice in a substantially oxygen free compartment, said securing step being performed by imparting sufficient strength to the seal to permit said product slices to be dispensed by manually rupturing the releasable seal and removing a number of members corresponding to the desired number of product slices while the remaining product slices continue to be covered by the remaining members and retained in substantially oxygen free sealed compartments.

A sealed package of individually sealed compartments comprising:

• a stack of a plurality of product slices having opposing major faces;
• and a plurality of oxygen-impermeable members, one of said members overlying each major face of each product slice so that said members and said product slices are disposed alternately in said stack, said members having a marginal portion which extends beyond the periphery of said slices, the marginal protions of said members being secured together by a manually releasable seal that extends completely around the periphery thereof to enclose each product slice in a sealed substantially oxygen free compartment, said seal being sufficiently strong that said product can be dispensed by manually rupturing the releasable seal and removing a number of members corresponding to the desired number of product slices while the remaining product slices are residually contained in sealed substantially oxygen free compartments provided by the remaining sealed members;
• and wherein said members comprise a first member which is a backing board underlying the stack of product slices, and plurality of second members which have a lesser thickness than said backing board and are secured to said backing board by a manually releasable seal.