Package having collar enclosure

A carton blank in combination with a tray about which the blank is to be wrapped which tray is made of resilient material and has opposed parallel edges, the carton blank being rectangular and comprising:

• a top panel of a length taken along the long dimension of the rectangle which is substantially equal to the distance between the opposed parallel edges of the tray,
• a pair of side panels, each connected to opposite ends of the top panel and extending in the longitudinal direction of the rectangle a distance greater than the height of the tray,
• a bottom panel connected to one of the side panels and extending in the longitudinal direction of the rectangle for a distance less than the length of the top panel but greater than the distance across the bottom of the tray,
• the bottom panel being connectable to the other side panel,
• wherein when assembled, the side panels turn inwardly to frictionally engage the sides of the tray while the corners of the side panels with the bottom panel are spaced outwardly from the lower outside edges of the tray,
• and wherein joining ends of the one side panel and the bottom panel have flaps of equal length, taken in the long direction of the rectangle, wherein, when said flaps are joined, inside to inside, they form a stiff support flap on the edge of which the package can stand, when cooperating with the parallel corner edge of that side panel and the top panel.

A package for a food product or the like, comprising:

• a tray formed from a single piece of resilient material having generally flat peripheral flanges located in a reference plane and defining the periphery of the tray and internal flanges also located in the reference plane, a plurality of recessed compartments, each compartment surrounded by certain ones of said flanges and extending from the reference plane downwardly to form a product receiving recess, the tray having at least one pair of opposed parallel edges,
• a thin flexible film covering the tray in said reference plane and attached to the flanges to airtightly seal the respective recessed compartments, a stiff collar wrapped completely around the tray, engaging the pair of opposed parallel edges, the width of the collar being less than the width of the package in the direction parallel to said parallel edges, such that a portion of the tray is exposed on each side of the collar,
• wherein the frictional engagement between the collar and the side edges of the tray, taken together with the width of the tray in the direction parallel to said parallel edges is such that the collar normally remains retained on the tray while at least some recessed compartments of the tray on both sides of the collar are visually exposed,
• the collar comprising a top which is generally flat and which overlies the top of the tray, a bottom which is generally flat and overlies the bottom of the tray, and a pair of sides, each of which sides extends from the top to the bottom, each side frictionally engaging a peripheral flange on the opposed parallel edges and each side being turned inwardly to form an acute angle with the top, wherein the top is longer than the bottom, both taken in a direction perpendicular to the said parallel edges,
• one of said sides being turned outwardly at its lower end to join an extension of the bottom to form an outwardly extending relatively stiff support flap, said support flap extending outwardly to a straight edge which is parallel to and located immediately beneath the corner of that side and the top,
• whereby said corner and said straight edge form a stand which allows the package to stand upright thereon.