A method and apparatus for processing and packaging cheese in which cheese curd which has been milled and salted is fed into four columns mounted on an upright tubular trunk fitted at the lower end with a guillotine blade movable between a closed position in which it closes the bottom of the trunk and an open position in which the blade is wholly clear of the trunk. The columns are maintained at a sub-atmospheric pressure so that air in the curd is flashed off immediately the curd enters the columns. The curd in the columns flows into the trunk and merges with the curd from the other columns to form a pillar of curd supported on the guillotine blade. The walls of the columns are perforated for drainage of whey pressed out from the curd by the weight of superimposed curd. An elevator below the trunk lowers the pillar of curd when the guillotine blade is withdrawn, the blade being subsequently returned to cut off a block of cheese from the lower end of the pillar. The elevator lowers the block of cheese into an open-ended rectangular container lined with a tube of plastics material which is subsequently sealed and evacuated to enclose the block of cheese.