Package including product support insert

Claim 1

A stiffening packaging element made from sheet material and adapted to support and retain a sliced product in a shingled array, and facilitating substantially smooth disposition thereabout of a plastic film and subsequent sealing thereof to enclose said element and said product, said element comprising: a supporting panel and a retaining panel, said supporting and retaining panels each being generally rectangular, having two longer sides and side edges defining the length of each panel and two shorter ends and end edges defining the width of each panel, and being joined together by a hinge line along common side edges, such that said retaining panel may be rotated about said hinge line and over said supporting panel to overlie and substantially cover said supporting panel; said retaining panel having, on each end thereof, a substantially continuous arcuate line of weak bending resistance extending from the vicinity of the intersections of said common side edge and said end edges, inwardly of said end edges, across the width of said retaining panel, to the adjoining intersection of the same respective end edges and the opposite side edge, said arcuate lines of weak bending resistance and their respective end edges defining segmentary cover flaps on the ends of said retaining panel; and said supporting panel having sides and ends corresponding to the sides and ends of said retaining panel, respectively, when said retaining panel overlies said supporting panel, and each said segmentary cover flap being bendable about said lines of weak bending resistance to engage the corresponding end of said retaining panel with the corresponding end of said supporting panel, said ends of said supporting panel being devoid of lines of weak bending resistance corresponding to said lines of weak bending resistance on said ends of said retaining panel, wherein disposition of a plastic film wrapped about said packaging element and its supported and retained sliced product and subjection of the film wrapped element and product to evacuation under vacuum and a sealing force effective to urge said panels against said product and to collapse said segmentary cover flaps against said product and the corresponding ends of said supporting panel to provide a substantially smooth surface of the collapsed segmentary cover flaps over which surface the plastic film conforms.