My son (BFd 3 1/2 yrs & now age 21) recently spent 2 - 3 weeks working in a local abm factory. He was there on a legitimate work detail, completed that work, and did not attempt to go anywhere he was not allowed to go in the course of his assignment. This is a report of what he observed at R---, in the Arizona desert, located right between the two largest cities in AZ. (I wonder what it costs just to air condition that place when it gets to >115F?!) There are 2 distinct structures. The manufacturing plant is single level about 30 ft high inside. The warehouse area has two levels & about 60 ft high. On one end, a huge 'tower', about the size of a downtown skyscraper, was under contruction. It had 4 freight elevators on the outside walls. He later learned it is to be offices and R&D laboratories. There are 3 security check points on the way into the fenced plant area. (More than a local computer chip mfg plant.) He had to identify himself & his business & was asked if he brought a camera (no picture taking allowed) or food. The guards made a visual check of the passenger compartment of his vehicle thru the windows. Inside the plant, he entered a small room where he was 'dusted off' with blasts of air, then to another room where he had to put on a protective suit over his clothing, complete with head cover, goggles, breathing apparatus & shoe covers. All employees wore this coverall clothing as required by the FDA. The first thing he said he noticed was how clean it was. The whole place was made of cement, & was cleaned, swept, & washed all day long. He saw one receiving bay which he believes could hold about 15 milk tankers completely inside with the bay doors were closed at all times. He saw only 4 tankers the little while he was in there. He said there may be more than that one receiving dock he visited. Milk tankers pumped out their contents into giant storage tanks. Other delivery trucks unloaded in separate bays from the outside where the rear of the truck fit tightly into the doorway & sealed it closed before unloading. Trucks delivered other products in what looked like 100 gal. sealed aluminum drums. He saw some labels on the drums like 'corn syrup', 'coconut oil' or 'coconut oil extract', & lots of sugars, oils & "fatty stuff that would take up space" in the final product. Nearby the receiving bay was a room that smelled wonderful, "like cookies baking." There, he saw bags of a white powder that had the "REAL" dairy symbol on them. The bags were large enough to fill a pallet when lying flat. In the milk (or liquid product) processing room the lights were deep green and workers wore goggles with special lenses. In another room they made their own cans, filled, sealed & labeled them on a standard assembly line. The only food products he saw made there was abm. The shipping dock in the w'hse area has at least 12 bays per dock. (He's not sure, but there may be more docks in the facility.) He told of lines of 18 wheel tractor-trailer rigs, backed up & waiting their turn to get into the bays & the roar of dozens of idling tractor engines. The workers were constantly either sweeping the bay or driving huge forklifts he described as 'spacemobiles' because of their size & number of pallets of abm cases they could carry. They would load an 18-wheeler every 20 minutes. He estimated 250 of these trucks were loaded in one 8-hour day while he worked in that one shipping dock, & more, but at a slower pace, at night. There were "just thousands of pallets," and despite the volume going out the door, the product available in the w'hse "never seemed to move, there was so much of it." Pallets were stacked on both levels in the w'hse & the 'spacemobiles' could drive up & down ramps between the 2 levels. He saw pallets of Is---- & other abm products, liquid & powdered, & En---- for adults, & their own brand of manual breast pumps (possibly also mf'd at that plant). The w'hse also has 2 bays that have train track spurs ending in them and one train spur going clear thru & out the other side. He did not see any train cars while he was there. His impression of the R--- plant: "This place has MONEY - LOTS of it!" Sleep well, all. Phyllis Adamson, LLLL, BA, IBCLC Phoenix, AZ [log in to unmask]