Plant of the Year 2019
Plant of the Year 2019
Help us choose the 2019 Dairy Plant of the Year. Dairy Foods nominated 13 dairy processing plants that manufacture fluid milk, cheese, ice cream and/or cultured dairy products. All have been featured on dairyfoods.com over the previous 17 months. Cast your vote below. Voting runs through June 24.
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Straus Family Creamery, Marshall, Calif.
The plant produces a range of organic dairy selections in a variety of sizes, including eight milk and cream products; 11 flavors of ice cream; seven European-style yogurt products; four Greek yogurt products; two butter products and one sour cream product.
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Cedar Crest Ice Cream, Manitowoc, Wis.
Cedar Crest Ice Cream makes an impressive amount of ice cream in its 45,408-square-foot facility in Manitowoc, Wis. The plant currently produces approximately 26 million pounds of product annually. The company uses the space wisely and continues to upgrade equipment and technology as product demand increases.
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Emmi Roth, Monroe, Wis.
The 50,000-square-foot chalet-style creamery was constructed in the 1950s and remodeled in 1991 for Roth. In 2006, it underwent a $4 million expansion to enlarge its brine system and add a modern culinary center. Giving the facility an extra dose of Swiss-inspired charm is the attached Alp and Dell store, which sells Emmi Roth cheeses (along with other products), but is operated independently..
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Danzeisen Dairy, Phoenix, Ariz.
You won’t find any fancy-looking equipment at the creamery operated by Phoenix-based Danzeisen Dairy LLC. The creamery relies on retrofitted vintage milk processing equipment — much of it from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and all of it from U.S. manufacturers — to produce its craft dairy products.
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Praline’s Inc., Wallingford, Conn.
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.
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Lifeway Foods, Waukesha, Wis.
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.
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Associated Milk Producers Inc., Sanborn, Iowa
Employees at Associated Milk Producers Inc.’s (AMPI) Sanborn, Iowa, plant might be seeing double, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with their vision. Instead, it’s a reflection of a recent expansion that doubled the facility’s cheesemaking capacity.
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Perry’s Ice Cream, Akron, N.Y.
In its Akron, N.Y., processing facility, Perry’s Ice Cream combines its founder’s recipe and methods with modern technology and a team-based culture.
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Borden Dairy Co., Dallas, TX
Under Borden Dairy's new "people-first" approach, employees at the company's Dallas milk plant understand their value — and are motivated to work together to create the highest-quality product.
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Toft Dairy, Sandusky, Ohio
The ice cream Toft Dairy produces at its Sandusky, Ohio, plant is subject to the high standards the company has had in place for all of its products over the last 119 years
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Schreiber Foods, Carthage, Mo.
Schreiber Foods’ Fairview cheese-converting plant in Carthage, Mo., is notable not only for its massive size, but also for its high level of automation and dedicated partner-owners.
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Michigan Milk Producers Association, Constantine, Mich
A recent fast-tracked major expansion added ultrafiltered skim milk concentrate to the products produced at the Michigan Milk Producers Association’s Constantine, Mich., plant.
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Turkey Hill Dairy, Conestoga, Pa.
2019 is a big year for Turkey Hill Dairy’s Conestoga, Pa., plant: It’s the year it became one of the first major ice cream or ice tea facilities to be run on 100% renewable energy.