Winning process: expanding production of chicken nuggets, snacks, turkey breasts and other items makes North Carolina a food-industry magnet.

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Crunchy dog treats made from spent beer-making grain. Dehydrated sweet potatoes destined for both human and canine entrees. A pack of pork chops available at your nearest grocery store. These items represent the diversity and vitality of the state's food-processing industry. Food processing, or "value-added agriculture" in economic-development parlance, encompasses everything that happens to an agricultural product once it's peeled, sent to a grain mill or slaughtered, including prepping, cooking, packaging and distribution. In 2012, companies in this sector employed 90,000 people in North Carolina, representing 2.8% of the state's private-sector jobs, according to Columbus, Ohio-based research firm Battelle Memorial Institute. Pork plants and other animal processors account for about a third of these jobs. Packaging is another specialty that employs many people, according to Battelle. Officials expect the sector to keep growing through both startups and expansion of existing companies.

Several factors make for a favorable climate, including the state's agribusiness infrastructure, experienced workforce, natural resources and existing programs and sites that support food entrepreneurs. The outlook could be even brighter if two key parts of the food-industry--the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University--join forces to create a proposed North Carolina Food Manufacturing and Processing Initiative. A feasibility study is underway.

The last year has brought welcome news of industry expansions in eastern and central North Carolina.

* In Kannapolis, Gordon Food Service Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich., announced late last year that it would invest $58 million in a new distribution center, creating 275 jobs over five years. It would be the company's first facility in North Carolina.

* Edenton-based Jimbos Jumbos Inc. said it will invest $30 million to expand its local plant that processes peanut products, creating 78 new jobs.

* In Charlotte, snack-maker Frito-Lay, a unit of Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc., plans to add 30 to 35 new jobs to the 560 current positions at its local plant.

* Garner-based Butterball LLC announced a $66 million expansion of its Raeford operations and will create 367 jobs over the next three years.

* In the Robeson County town of St. Pauls, Sanderson Foods Inc. in March said it will build a new poultry complex and add 1,100 new jobs over...

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