Patent ID: 7891159

Claim:
A method of positioning a loaded bag in a vacuum chamber comprising a) loading a flexible polymeric bag by placing a meat or cheese product in the flexible polymeric bag, the bag made from a material that is transparent to infrared radiation, and wherein the polymeric bag has at an upstream end thereof a bag mouth; b) placing the loaded bag on an infeed conveyor that is transparent to infrared radiation; c) advancing the loaded bag, on the infeed conveyor, to a sensing apparatus comprising an infrared camera disposed above the conveyor, and a bank of light emitting diodes disposed below the conveyor; d) interrogating the bank of light emitting diodes, through the loaded bag, using the sensing apparatus, with infrared radiation to detect the trailing edge of the meat or cheese product inside the loaded bag; e) transmitting information acquired from the interrogating step to a programmable logic controller; f) advancing the interrogated loaded bag a distance, based in the information acquired from the interrogating step, to a vacuum chamber comprising a heat seal assembly; and g) heat sealing the loaded bag with the heat seal assembly to close the bag mouth.