What appears to be the largest employer in the McLean County village of Gridley has closed.

Production at the Kerry Inc. foodstuffs factory ended Friday, according to spokesman Gene Grabowski. The 115 Kerry employees at Gridley were notified officially Thursday.

Reduced demand for breakfast cereal, the plant's signature product, appeared to be the primary problem. Kerry acquired the facility about 16 years ago, after it purchased Gridley-based Ringger Foods.

"People are just eating different things," Grabowski said Friday. "I don't think Millennials are eating cereal as much as Generations X or Y, or (Baby) Boomers."

Kerry is an Ireland-based food-ingredient manufacturer. Its domestic base is in Beloit, Wis.

Employees at Gridley might be eligible for jobs at other Kerry facilities and are eligible for severance, among other things, according to Grabowski.

Breakfast bars also were manufactured at the Gridley facility, Grabowski said. Its cereals were marketed under various labels.

The Gridley plant was the source of a salmonella outbreak earlier this year that sickened 135 people in 36 states, according to The Miami Herald. No deaths were reported, but 34 people were hospitalized.

The infections were linked to Kellogg's Honey Smacks puffed-wheat cereal manufactured in Gridley.

A warning letter from the federal Food and Drug Administration stated salmonella had been found at the plant multiple times between September 2016 and May 2018. The letter faulted Kerry for not doing enough to contain the problem.

The salmonella issue was among the reasons the Gridley facility closed, according to Grabowski. Production disruptions, which contributed to a decrease in volume, resulted from the outbreak.

"Obviously, it was a factor that played into it, but not the primary factor," he said. "The primary factor was reduced demand."

Job openings at Gridley had been posted on the Kerry website and other sites over the past month. One remained posed on the Kerry site Thursday.

Gridley has about 1,400 residents and is located 40 miles east of Peoria.