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When Lifeway Foods Inc. purchased the former Golden Guernsey fluid milk plant in Waukesha, Wis., at a bankruptcy auction in 2013, it faced an uphill battle in readying it for production of the company’s signature 32-ounce kefir line. Although the 157,000-square-foot, 60-plus-year-old facility had “good bones,” its former tenant had shut down very quickly with no exit plan.

Which plant will be Dairy Foods’ 2018 Dairy Plant of the Year? Will it be a small fluid milk processing facility in Phoenix or a large cheesemaker in Wisconsin? Those are just two of the 13 dairy plants that are in the running for Dairy Foods’ Plant of the Year.

A 2015 report from the World Economic Forum said that water shortages will be the Earth's biggest threat in the next decade. Meanwhile, data from UN-Water show that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be experiencing water scarcity, while two-thirds of the world's population could be living in still-concerning conditions of water stress.

Hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), IFT18 will be held at McCormick Place in Chicago. The food expo will bring together food science and technology thought leaders from more than 90 countries representing the most prominent organizations in the global food sector.

Obsession with millennials so pervades contemporary culture that even millennials, notorious for their self-regard, have grown weary of hearing about themselves. But while there was a time when non-millennials could at least dismiss their juniors' fancies for Frisbees, breakfast cereal and nonstop Nickelodeon as kid stuff, that's getting harder to do now that members of the generation born between 1981 and 1996 (as defined by the Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C.) are having kids of their own.

You won't find any fancy feeder hoppers or blenders in Praline's Inc.'s Wallingford, Conn., ice cream processing, distribution and headquarters facility. The company believes that the old-fashioned methods still yield the best-tasting ice cream. So plant employees start with a high-quality base, then mix in the variegates and inclusions by hand.

Imagine cheese carefully handcrafted by someone trained in a top artisanal cheesemaking course in Wisconsin. The individual is so passionate about cheeses that each vat of curd is stirred by hand, and the product is closely monitored throughout the entire cheesemaking process.

Compared to many other ice cream processors, Wallingford, Conn.-based Praline’s Inc. runs a rather small operation. The 34-year-old company got its start with a single Praline’s ice cream store in Wallingford; it later sold that shop through a franchise agreement to exit retail and enter the ice cream-making business full time.