About Gerber Products Company Fremont Plant Michigan

A Century of Industrial Food Processing: Michigan’s Legacy of Asbestos Exposure

Gerber Products Company was founded in 1927 in Fremont, Michigan — a small city in Newaygo County in the western Lower Peninsula. The company began commercially producing strained baby food in 1928 and grew into one of the largest food processing corporations in the country. The Fremont plant remained Gerber’s primary manufacturing hub for decades, undergoing substantial expansions throughout the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s — the precise era when asbestos-containing materials were most heavily specified in American industrial construction.

At its peak, the Fremont facility reportedly employed thousands of workers and operated massive food processing infrastructure, including:

  • High-pressure steam boiler systems
  • Ammonia refrigeration and cold storage systems
  • Continuous canning and retort processing lines
  • Steam-heated cooking and sterilization equipment
  • Extensive piping networks connecting boiler houses to processing floors
  • Turbine-driven mechanical systems and industrial machinery

Each of these systems was routinely insulated, sealed, or built with asbestos-containing materials during the mid-twentieth century. Industrial facilities of this type and era are now well-documented sources of occupational asbestos exposure. Michigan’s industrial economy — anchored in automotive manufacturing, food processing, and heavy industry — made the state one of the most heavily asbestos-exposed labor markets in the country during this period. Workers at facilities ranging from the Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn to the Buick City complex in Flint routinely encountered similar asbestos-containing materials in their daily work, making Michigan asbestos exposure a widespread occupational health crisis.

Nestlé acquired Gerber in 2007, and the Fremont plant continued operating as a major baby food production site. The historical asbestos use at the facility — spanning the plant’s original construction through the regulatory phase-out of asbestos in the 1970s and 1980s — remains a documented concern for workers who spent years or decades on the premises.

If you worked at this facility and have since received a diagnosis of mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease, Michigan’s three-year filing deadline under MCL § 600.5805(2) is already running. The sooner you speak with an asbestos cancer lawyer Detroit or Michigan-based counsel, the more legal options remain available to you. An experienced mesothelioma lawyer Michigan can help you navigate both civil litigation and asbestos trust fund claim processes.

General Equipment at Gerber Products Company Fremont Plant Michigan

The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.

Industrial Boilers View crosswalk › Process Piping View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Block Insulation View crosswalk › Valves View crosswalk › Gaskets View crosswalk › Pumps View crosswalk › Heat Exchangers View crosswalk › Cooling Equipment View crosswalk ›

Documented Asbestos Evidence

The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Michigan EGLE (Environment, Great Lakes & Energy) (Michigan EGLE) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.

No Michigan EGLE NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.

Material Categories in Documented Records

The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:

Thermal System Insulation View crosswalk › Asbestos-Cement Board View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Roofing & Flashing View crosswalk › Spray Fireproofing View crosswalk › Floor Tile & Mastic View crosswalk › Ceiling Tile View crosswalk › Gaskets & Packing View crosswalk ›

Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Michigan law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 3 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (MCL § 600.5805(13)). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 3 years from the date of death (MCL § 600.5852). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.

The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.

Practical first steps

  1. Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
  2. Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
  3. Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
  4. Speak with an asbestos attorney with Michigan experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.

Asbestos-Related Diseases

Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.

Mesothelioma

A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.

Asbestosis

A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.

Lung Cancer

Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.

Other Recognized Diseases

Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.

If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.

Data Sources

Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:

If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.