It is no surprise that construction in the food industry is continuously growing, changing, and becoming more demanding in today’s world of clean eating and label checkers. It’s a fact: consumer demands are changing the way food brands build and renovate their facilities. The largest consumer group, millennials and their parents, are seeking products that have overall healthier options, especially when compared to the legacy brands they grew up with. According to Food Insiders Journal, 73% of consumers are happy to pay a higher retail price for a food or drink product made with ingredients they recognize and trust and with taglines such as “no preservatives,” “dairy-free” “gluten-free,” “non-GMO,” “all-natural,” or “plant-based.”
Since completing our first food project in 1986 with Kraft Foods Jell-O in Mason City, Iowa, Dean Snyder Construction (DSC) has helped over two dozen food clients adjust their products as the food industry continues to evolve. Whether hired as the General Contractor to construct a new food ingredient processing facility or design-build a cold storage warehouse for distribution, we have been at the forefront of these changes across the United States.
One market trend impacting our clients continues to be the removal of sugar substitutes (artificial sweeteners) that were initially designed to lower a product’s overall sugar content. DSC was hired to help a popular children’s beverage company modify their recipe from containing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to one with real liquid sugar due to the negative results of studies over the last decade linking HFCS to obesity, diabetes, and tumor growths.
The DSC team designed a two-truck unloading bay with an ingredient delivery system and a clean-in-place (CIP) system for the new liquid sugar delivery. The fast-track project included procuring the equipment and self-performing millwright as needed.
Dean Snyder Construction (DSC) is a family-owned and operated firm with locations in Clear Lake and Ankeny, Iowa. DSC provides design-build, construction management and general construction services nationwide to clients in the food/beverage, pharmaceutical, industrial manufacturing, commercial, and healthcare markets.