Given its decades-long tradition of quality and industry leadership in a variety of areas, it should come as no surprise that a company as established as Perdue Farms could adjust to trends that are only a few years old.

Food-grade lubricants, one of the essential elements in protecting both machinery and proteins during the production process, are becoming more powerful. Responding to the growing demand by meat producers for greases that can better withstand cleanings and operate under extreme conditions, developers are enhancing products that meet U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations for use in plants where there is the possibility of incidental food contact and subsequent contamination.

The executive director of the Sacramento SPCA said that the organization has decided not to actively oppose a Sacramento businessman's request to locate a poultry processing plant near the SPCA's complex.

XL Four Star Beef Inc. said Friday that it will close its Nampa, Idaho, beef processing plant at the beginning of June. The plant employs more than 500 people, reports the Idaho Statesman.

The Smithfield Packing Co. Inc. announced that it would shift production from its Portsmouth, Va. plant to Kinston, N.C., and permanently close the Portsmouth facility in early 2013.

The CEO of Walker River Meat Processing is hoping to break ground on a new, 300,000-square-foor processing plant north of Yerlington, Nev., next spring.

The opening of the Northern Beef Packers plant has been delayed indefinitely, though construction and hiring employees is progressing, says CEO David Palmer.

The Vernon plant is the sole location which makes Wright Brand Bacon.

Vista Processed Foods Pvt. Ltd., India's largest frozen processed foods company and part of the OSI Group, recently commissioned a new frozen foods further processing plant in Madanapalle, near Bangalore.

The project, initially proposed in 2006, may begin processing cattle as early as this spring.