Premises Description

Kraft Foods / Kraft Foods Corporation has been named as a premises defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation for alleged asbestos exposure across its national network of cheese, dairy, confection, and grocery-product plants — including Glenview IL and Northfield IL headquarters facilities and processing plants in Wisconsin, New York, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. Kraft’s asbestos-era footprint also includes plants operated under the General Foods, Oscar Mayer, Nabisco, Post, and Maxwell House labels acquired into the Kraft portfolio.

Kraft cheese, dairy, confection, and grocery-product plants are heavy industrial premises: pasteurizer halls, cheese-vat and cook-tank rooms, spray-dryer towers, refrigerated cold-storage warehouses, cracker and confection lines, packaging halls, and on-site steam and refrigeration plants. Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that pre-1980 Kraft plant premises involved asbestos through:

  • Asbestos pipe covering on dairy and process steam headers, pasteurizer piping, and cook-tank lines
  • Asbestos sheet gaskets at pasteurizer, cook kettle, cheese vat, homogenizer, and process flanges
  • Asbestos block and cork insulation on ammonia refrigeration compressors, chillers, and cold-storage rooms
  • Asbestos rope packing on dairy pumps, separators, valves, and centrifuges
  • Asbestos-lined tunnel and band ovens on cracker, biscuit, and confection lines
  • Asbestos refractory, boiler insulation, and gaskets at Kraft powerhouse steam generators
  • Asbestos sprayed fireproofing on structural steel in multi-story dairy, confection, and packaging plants
  • Asbestos arc chutes and panel millboard in food-plant switchgear

Workers Exposed

Plaintiffs allegedly worked at Kraft Foods national cheese, dairy, confection, and food-processing plants — including facilities across Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania, and Ohio — in trades including:

  • Insulators (HFIAW) applying and removing asbestos pipe covering and block on dairy and refrigeration lines
  • Pipefitters (UA) breaking asbestos-gasketed flanges on steam headers, pasteurizers, and process piping
  • Boilermakers servicing asbestos-refractory-lined powerhouse boilers
  • Millwrights rebuilding dairy pumps, separators, homogenizers, and packaging machines with asbestos packing
  • Refrigeration mechanics working on ammonia compressors and cork-insulated cold-storage rooms
  • Oven mechanics working on asbestos-lined cracker, biscuit, and confection ovens
  • Dairy workers and food-plant operators around fireproofed pasteurizer and packaging halls
  • Electricians and IBEW workers on food-plant switchgear and motor-control centers

If You Worked at Kraft

If you or a family member worked at a Kraft Foods / Kraft Foods Corporation cheese, dairy, confection, or food-processing plant before 1980 and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related disease, you may have a legal claim.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956