Award-Winning Innovation for Iconic Kitchen Staple.

Reformulation to Modernize Brand

For more than 84 years, Kraft Heinz has been serving up its iconic powdered, make-at-home macaroni and cheese. Originally designed with a long shelf life in mind during the Great Depression, it later becoming popular during World War II as milk and dairy product rations increased and the demand for meatless meals increased.

Recently, the company elected to modernize its current Kraft Mac and Cheese recipe to provide “Blue Box” lovers with a better experience. The improvement project required facility and equipment upgrades to support the new initiative.

Gray provided bulk bag unloaders, a liquid cheese cook room, a clean-in-place (CIP) sanitation system, and a drying and blending room. This process flow drastically improved efficiency at the facility, increasing production rates from 7,000 to 10,000 lbs. per hour.

Unique Challenges

Even before Operations’ leaders at Kraft Heinz learned COVID-19 was on its way to the United States, they made a significant investment for a new CIP sanitation system in Wausau. Gray installed the system at the Wisconsin plant in December 2020. Soon after, the pandemic’s U.S. onset and the subsequent stay-at-home orders for consumers saw a dramatic increase in demand for products with extended shelf lives, making the Wausau facility upgrade even more critical. Gray performed the new equipment and process installation without disrupting existing operations, allowing Kraft Heinz to continue production to meet the increased demand.

Throughout the improvements, the project team took extra steps to anticipate and reduce potential waste, such as adding an integrated dust collector to each discharger near the bulk bag unloaders, which helped control dust migration and product loss by discharging collected dust back into the process.

Award-Winning Project

Due to the success of the complex, multi-line expansion, the project was awarded a Manufacturing Innovation Award by ProFood World, a leading food and beverage manufacturing publication.

Prior to this project, Gray also successfully partnered with Kraft Heinz on an award-winning facility in Davenport, IA.