Aurora Foods Purchases New Operations Center, Expects to Save $8 Million Annually

St. Louis, MO - August 9, 2001 - In an effort to expand its distribution capabilities and increase production efficiencies, Aurora Foods Inc. (NYSE:AOR), a leading manufacturer of premium branded food products, today announced it has purchased a 252,000-square-foot facility in St. Elmo, Illinois, from Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT).

The site will become the Company's first wholly owned integrated distribution and operations center. When fully operational, the new facility is expected to provide annualized cost savings of over $8 million, with about $5 million expected to occur in 2002. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"This new facility is a key part of our strategy to improve efficiencies and achieve our objective of becoming a low-cost producer in our business categories," said James T. Smith, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The new center is ideally located to serve our needs and will be operational very quickly. This is just one example of the many initiatives designed to make Aurora one of the most efficient, aggressive and innovative branded companies in the food industry."

The site will be initially dedicated to the distribution of Aurora's baking and syrup brands of Duncan Hines, Log Cabin and Mrs. Butterworth's. The new facility, which was once a baking plant, will also be used in the future to manufacture some of Aurora's products.