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About Us

Food Plant Engineering is a specialized company that offers planning, design, and construction services for food production, processing, and distribution facilities.


Our doors opened in 1953 as Henry A. Lurie & Associates with a mission to provide innovative design solutions for USDA-inspected facilities. While working as an engineer for a meat packing company, founder Henry Lurie heard complaints that the design firms in the industry, "didn't understand their business and brought little or nothing to the table,” so he founded a firm to do just that: understand the unique production and facility needs of food processing companies.

We tackle a variety of projects throughout the U.S., from small additions and renovations to large, new plants.

We can implement our designs using your preferred contractor or provide single-source construction management services with our sister company, Food Plant Construction, LLC. Our food industry areas of expertise include:

  • Meat/Poultry/Seafood

  • Bakery/Snack

  • Dairy/Cheese

  • Prepared Food

  • Commissary/Culinary Center

  • Frozen Food

  • Fruit/Vegetable

  • Flavor/Ingredients

As a result of our many years of working with food industry clients, we have observed eight distinctive facility characteristics of leading food processing, production, and distribution companies. These first-class facilities exemplify the best industry practices in these eight areas. Our team strives to integrate the optimal features of the following characteristics into the planning and design of every project:

Food Safety

Sanitary Design

Productive Workflows

Smart Automation

Sustainable Construction

Energy Efficiency

Food Defense

Regulatory Compliance