Food-firm founder Lotman dies at 80

HERB LOTMAN, a food industry entrepreneur and founder of one of the world's largest food companies, has died at age 80.

Jeff Lotman said his father died yesterday at a Philly-area hospital from complications of heart failure.

Herb Lotman is the founder of Keystone Foods.

A Philadelphia native, he began his career in the food industry with his family's wholesale beef business.

In the late 1960s, Lotman and his partners pioneered cryogenics for McDonald's and developed a mass-production system for making frozen hamburgers.

Lotman built Keystone Foods over 40 years to a company generating more than $5 billion in sales annually.