Dole Food Co. has opened a $54 million salad packaging plant in Bessemer City, N.C., its first in the state. The plant employs 350 people and could grow to 900 people in the next ten years, the company said. Dole, which recently opened a health and wellness center at its Westlake Village headquarters, is also planning to open a Dole Nutrition Institute in Kannapolis, a nearby city in North Carolina’s Gaston County. The institute, located at the North Carolina Research Campus, will focus on research to improve health and wellbeing.