Lifeway Foods Inc. has completed the first stage of its Waukesha, Wis., expansion project, an investment that is expected to double the production capacity of that facility once completed. The multimillion-dollar project looks to increase output in the face of increased demand for functional dairy products like kefir and fermented probiotic products.
During stage one, Lifeway doubled the number of fermentation tanks used to create kefir from raw milk purchased from Wisconsin farmers.
Lifeway said in the announcement that it currently uses nearly 100 million pounds of Wisconsin milk annually to culture into kefir — which is made through inoculation of milk with live kefir grains that ferment lactose over 12-24 hours, creating a tangy beverage with billions of live probiotic cultures in every serving.
The company also offered an update on the progress of the rest of the project, saying the next three stages had already begun, with the company expecting completion of those steps in the third quarter of 2026.
Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.
