Mondelez unit opens food plant in southern Indiana

Enjoy Life Foods on Thursday opened its new gluten-free, allergy-friendly food manufacturing plant in southern Indiana.

The plant in Jeffersonville will employ about 200 people when production is fully shifted there from Schiller Park. The company is spending more than $39 million to lease and equip the plant, which is about twice the size of the Schiller Park plant.

Enjoy Life Foods, which Oreo maker Mondelez International acquired in February 2015, makes more than 40 kinds of cookies, chocolate and savory snacks. Its products are free from wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish and shellfish, which the company says account for about 90 percent of all food allergies.

“This is a historic milestone for our company and for the allergy-friendly community as a whole,” Joel Warady, Enjoy Life’s chief marketing and innovation officer, said in a news release. The new plant “allows us to further grow our operations to provide even more great-tasting products to families across the U.S. and Canada, while expanding our reach to people seeking allergy-friendly food options around the world.”

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. said the company will receive up to $800,000 in conditional state tax credits based on its job-creation plans, plus local incentives.

Contributing: The Associated Press