To execute works for packaging fruits and vegetables simply and easily and to increase efficiency for packaging work by a method wherein a protective cover is expanded sufficiently to allow the fruits and vegetables to be housed therein and the fruits and vegetables are housed at once into the expanded protective cover.

Fruits and vegetables A placed on a lift-up table 35 are raised upward while being pressed against the center at the underside of a packaging sheet B unwound toward the underside of a support table 37, and the fruits and vegetables A are entirely inserted from below into an entrance/exit hole 37a of the support table 37. At the same time, expanding bodies 39, 39 attached to a covering table 38 are turned in the direction of opening, and the lower ends of a protective cover D are expanded to and held at a size to allow the fruits and vegetables A to be pushed and housed easily therein. Then, the fruits and vegetables A and the packaging sheet B are pushed from below and housed in the protective cover D, and the protective cover D is put for covering the peripheral surface of the fruits and vegetables A covered with the packaging sheet B. Thereby, the fruits and vegetables A can be packaged at once with the packaging sheet B and the protective cover D.