Food Plant Awards Weigh Layout and Utility Performance

Food Engineering named Carolina Foods' Pineville, North Carolina facility its 2025 Plant of the Year in a January 15, 2025 announcement. The magazine said judges were impressed by efficiencies that let the company raise product throughput while maintaining safety and quality, pointing to the project's linear setup, high levels of automation, and updated production equipment.

Refrigerated and Frozen Foods, reporting on the same award on January 17, 2025, noted the physical scale involved: the new facility added 425,000 square feet to Carolina Foods' existing 100,000-square-foot operations footprint, previously used to make products including Duchess Honey Buns, donuts, pastries and pies.

Layout and zoning were specific factors in the award

Food Engineering's Plant of the Year program reviews the automation strategy, processing and packaging line design, and supply chain management plan of each submission, according to the magazine's Plant of the Year topic page. In the Carolina Foods announcement, the magazine specifically cited the decision to separate fryer rooms from the rest of the production space as a novel way to meet design goals. Food Engineering also reported that the project helped Carolina Foods expand its ability to serve customers in all 50 states.

The award will be presented at the Food Automation & Manufacturing Symposium and Expo, which Food Engineering said was held April 14-16, 2025, at the Hilton Downtown Tampa in Tampa, Florida.

A separate award has recognized utility-side performance

Food Processing's Green Plant of the Year page features Perdue Farms' Lewiston, North Carolina chicken processing plant in an item dated Sept. 8, 2026. According to the item, the plant implemented a string of sustainability initiatives over the past year, including reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and water impact. The landing page does not provide a full project ledger of the specific measures or figures involved.

These are two separate award programs run by different trade publications, recognizing different facilities in different years. The Carolina Foods honor is a general Plant of the Year award focused on layout and automation; the Perdue Farms recognition is a Green Plant of the Year award focused on environmental performance. Taken together, they show that both design layout and utility performance are criteria that industry publications evaluate and publicize separately when covering new or upgraded food plants.

MarketScale analysis: Operators reviewing new-build or expansion plans may find it useful to ask design teams to document material flow paths and to separate high-heat or high-variability process steps, such as frying, from the rest of production, since Food Engineering specifically credited that zoning choice in the Carolina Foods case. Similarly, if utility and emissions data are part of an internal review process, requesting a metering and verification baseline can support later comparisons, since Food Processing's recognition of Perdue Farms centered on measured reductions rather than a general goal.