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.

Total cheese output (excluding cottage cheese) was 871 million pounds, 0.3 percent above September 2011 but 1.9 percent below August 2012.