Abstract: A method and apparatus for packaging items, such as meat, non-meat products and non-food products, using ultrasound or heat is disclosed herein. In a preferred embodiment, a continuous thermoplastic tubular mesh material is used to package multiple meat products. The preferred packaging method does not use metal clips as in conventional packaging, and instead uses thermal energy, ultrasonic energy, or other types of energy to create seals in the packaging material itself. The method advantageously causes one seal to be formed between each pair of adjacently packaged products. This single seal can be cut in half thereby creating two seals, one seal for each adjacently packaged product.