A method is provided for loading stacked food product into packages. Open top containers are arranged in rows and movable into a loading station. A shuttle conveyor has a retractable and extendable conveying surface, the conveying surface having an end region extendable to a position arranged above the containers of a row of the containers. A guiding and pushing apparatus is arranged above the row and includes guides that are lowered to capture a row of stacked food products on the conveying surface, and plungers within the guides that lower and press a top of the stacks. When the conveying surface is retracted from beneath the guides and the row of containers, the guides are lowered further, adjacent to the containers, and the plungers are lowered with respect to the guides to push the stacks into the containers.