Materials handling and packaging apparatus, namely, cheese block upender apparatus for rotating 180 degrees cheese blocks moving along a conveyor, cheese block singulator and orientator apparatus, automatic cheese loader for inputting cheese to a horizontal form/fill/seal machine, automatic cheese block bagger apparatus, automatic multi-station cheese handling apparatus in the nature of an in-line-sequentially positioned automatic bagger, regusseter, capper, bander, finished hoop palletizer, and rapid cooler, block cheese washers, block cheese zero pressure accumulation conveyors, packaging machines, namely, packaging machines for use in testing and ensuring the integrity of block cheese packaging, and cheese hoop assembler for automatically assembling multi-sided cheese hoops