in accordance with one aspect of the invention , a material , such as a plastic film , is used to separate independent food elements . the independent food elements and the separation material are packaged together using a unifying outer package . at a point in time when the customer decides to eat the food , the outer package is opened and the film that separates the different food elements is removed , either manually or automatically . this marks the first point in time that the separate elements come into contact with each other . therefore , the food product is maintained at the highest level of integrity until the time of usage by the customer . methods and a machine for layering the contents of the packages so as to form a completed assembly for the packaged elements is also described .