At least four food processing plants have been forced to shut down or curtail operations in the wake of the disastrous Midwest flood, the worst the region has seen in 15 years. The closures have disrupted supplies of a range of food ingredients and retail food products. Among the sites affected is PepsiCo's Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On June 11, PepsiCo closed the flooded facility. Quaker engineers and safety personnel were able to tour the facility a few days later as part of an ongoing assessment of the situation. While the company expects disruptions to normal service for several weeks, including product allocation to the retail trade of some Quaker foods and snack items, PepsiCo expects to return to full production at the plant. In the meantime, the company has redirected some production to other Quaker facilities. In its statement, the company indicated that it had ample insurance to cover both the facility and the business interruption. Further, it does not expect the outage to adversely affect the company's financial performance for the year.
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