Deli Star Corporation, an industry leader in cooked protein manufacturing and culinary innovation, opened its new state-of-the-art facility in St. Louis, Missouri, located at 3049 Chouteau Avenue. The relocation and rebuilding efforts are the result of a fire that destroyed the company’s Fayetteville, Illinois, plant January 11, 2021. Missouri Governor Mike Parson and city of St. Louis Mayor Tishuara Jones joined Deli Star employees and guests during a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony at the new facility.

“Today is the culmination of years of hard work, culinary innovation and manufacturing excellence coming to life under one roof,” said Deli Star CEO Justin Siegel. “In just over a year, our team went from a pile of ashes to creating one of the finest food production facilities in the industry. I could not be more proud of what we achieved, and I’m in awe of what we accomplished by putting our people first in all that we do. St. Louis has established itself as a food innovation city, and we look forward to creating the future of food as one of the industry’s leading protein ingredient companies in our new hometown.” 

Deli Star worked with DCM Group, Ficon Construction and Answers, Inc., all St. Louis-based companies, on site design, engineering and build-out of the cutting edge space. In the new LEED-certified facility, the company will produce extended refrigerated shelf life fresh cooked proteins, including seared and sous-vide proteins, deli meats, smoked proteins, and plant-based proteins with the ability to innovate to expand custom culinary offerings for customers.  

“We are excited to welcome Deli Star Corporation to Missouri as it brings hundreds of new jobs and economic opportunity to the St. Louis region,” Governor Parson said. “As Deli Star seeks to provide high quality protein to its customers, its operations in the St. Louis region will further complement our growing food processing industry and our state’s number one economic driver, agriculture. We look forward to Deli Star finding continued success here in the Show-Me State.”

Deli Star’s new plant includes industry-best equipment and production-line layouts to efficiently deliver safe, quality proteins. The new location is two miles from Deli Star’s Food Discovery Center located at City Foundry STL. The proximity allows Deli Star to easily service customers from ideation to scale-up and through production. Deli Star’s new plant is USDA, FDA, HACCP, SQF 9.0, customer audit-centric, and organic certified.

To help introduce students to careers in food science, food production and culinary arts, Deli Star has partnered with St. Louis Public Schools to offer internships and job training programs for local students.

“The nearly 500 good-paying jobs at Deli Star's new production facility will help St. Louisans support their families and communities,” said Mayor Tishaura O. Jones. “We are proud the company chose to expand in St. Louis, and we look forward to continuing their partnership with the City and St. Louis Public Schools.”

Source: Deli Star Corp.