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ProFood World will present the winners of its fifth annual Manufacturing Innovation Awards at PACK EXPO Las Vegas in September 2021. These awards recognize outstanding innovations in food and beverage processing and packaging at the plant level. This year’s honorees include MWC, LLC; Kraft Heinz; and CTI Foods, LLC.
MWC, LLC will be recognized for its new 400,000-square-foot facility—an advanced manufacturing plant located in St. Johns, Michigan, which processes 25% of the state’s total milk output. The plant transforms 8 million pounds of raw milk daily into cheese and whey products at a rate of 850,000 pounds of cheese and 11,000 pounds of whey protein concentrate and isolate per hour. The whey permeate remaining from the concentration process is piped via a bridge to an adjacent facility housing North America’s largest permeate spray dryer.
Kraft Heinz is also being honored for its project involving its iconic Mac & Cheese product line. The company expanded and modernized its plant in Wausau, Wisconsin, to accommodate recent recipe improvements. The updated formulation delivers a better consumer experience but required significant upgrades—including building modifications, new liquid and powder handling systems, and a sophisticated Clean-in-Place (CIP) system—to meet production demands. Additionally, the project enhanced worker safety and ergonomics and increased output by more than 40%.
CTI Foods, LLC serves the foodservice and industrial ingredient sectors with proteins, soups, sauces, and seasonings. To automate its labor-intensive tortilla-stuffed product filling line, the company implemented a custom-designed robotic end-of-arm tooling system capable of picking up two tortillas at a time and orienting them precisely into trays. This upgrade significantly boosted productivity across four packaging cells, raising output to 960 tortillas per minute. Additional enhancements to the integrated system include robotic controls, delta-style pick-and-place robots, feed conveyors, tray erectors, vision systems, tray overwrappers, checkweighers, and inspection systems.
“We look forward to welcoming this year’s winners at PACK EXPO in Las Vegas and hearing how they brought these innovative projects to life,” said Joyce Fassl, Editor-in-Chief of ProFood World. “Their success stories inspire food and beverage manufacturing professionals and offer a glimpse into the future of processing and packaging innovation.”
