Plant of the Year

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Blending advanced automation with purposeful design, this year’s Plant of the Year reflects how food manufacturers are engineering smarter, more efficient operations to meet evolving industry demands.

CJ Schwan’s partnered with Burns & McDonnell to design and build a 400,000-sq.-ft. greenfield pizza manufacturing facility and 140,000-sq.-ft., fully automated distribution center with independent utility systems.

Eligible facilities need to have been completed between Oct. 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2025.

Designed to improve upon the limitations at its original bakery, Carolina Foods’ new facility is FOOD ENGINEERING’s 2025 Plant of the Year.

The new facility adds 425,000 sq. ft. to Carolina Foods’ previously existing 100,000 sq. ft. of operations creating baked goods such as Duchess Honey Buns, donuts, pastries and pies.

Even though there were only six months in between iterations, FA&M still delivered on the networking and educational content.

The JBS Principe facility is FOOD ENGINEERING’s 2024 Plant of the Year for its daring modern take on traditional Italian-style dried meat production.

The plant will be featured in the April cover story, and the award will be presented at the annual Food Automation & Manufacturing Symposium and Expo.

A former staple of FOOD ENGINEERING is getting updated as an eNewsletter.

Plant of the Year entrants are automatically entered into the Sustainable Plant of the Year competition. All entries are due by December 29, 2023.