The brand-new Enjoy Life Foods bakery, located in Jeffersonville, IN, is a sight to behold. After acquiring Enjoy Life in 2015, Mondelez International showed its commitment to growing the brand by investing in construction of the state-of-the-art bakery, thereby giving the allergen-free brand the resources and positioning it needs to significantly grow its global presence. (For complete details, see our 2017 “Bakery of the Year” cover story on free-from pioneer Enjoy Life Foods in this issue)
At the start of the construction project, the bakery was merely a shell, poised for shaping by key Enjoy Life operations leaders—some of whom were assigned to the company from parent Mondelez, seasoned industry veterans with many years of running food manufacturing facilities. Working with design-build partner Gray Construction, the team created a facility with high levels of sanitary design throughout. Key features include hygienic pressurization and multi-tiered GMP areas to prevent unintended introduction of allergens into the production area.