Barilla sauces: when tradition and innovation meet
12 September 2018
Starting from the Italian country tradition, drawing inspiration from its history to offer people a genuineness rooted in the past but looking to the future, in an eco-friendly way. This is an essential aim for historic food producers in an age when the pairing of tradition and innovation is the best-seller in food: in Italy, for example, no fewer than 8 out of 10 consumers prefer traditional Italian cuisine above all others (ref. Doxa_Unitalia, “Le ricette della tradizione” ).
Ready-made sauces are perhaps the most emblematic example of innovation applies to the traditional food process, in this case involving one of Italy's best loved food traditions.
Homemade tomato purees, produced in late summer every year – familiar to us all – are still a major part of the Italian food heritage, evoking genuineness, long-established regional traditions and family togetherness. All unique values, handed down over time, now brought to our tables in the renewed form of ready-made sauces, very popular because they are quick, convenient and delicious.
We produces them with the same attention to genuineness and quality as all its products, a commitment that reflects the mission announced by Pietro Barilla when he explained: “At Barilla we have always made food, and always in accordance with the principle that it was our duty only to give people products we would happily give to our own children”.
Last but not least, ready-made sauces also conform to our main mission: to offer products that are not only good for people, but also for the planet.
BASIL AND TOMATO: THE MOST GENUINE RAW MATERIALS FOR QUALITY SAUCES
People are always the starting-point for raw materials of excellence: all the fresh basil used to make our sauces is 100% Italian, produced by selected growers, and the same applies to the tomato puree. Seamlessly continuing the historic sauce-making tradition, one of the crowning glories of the food culture of both Italy and Parma itself, even today the whole process is dictated by the rhythms of nature: sowing in May and sauce and pesto production in summer allow people to savor their favorite products before the fall.
GOOD AND HEALTHY: BARILLA SAUCES WITHOUT PRESERVATIVES OR COLORS
And consumers' wellbeing benefits again, since these quality sauces are made without a trace of added preservatives or colors, simply because there is no need for them. We use state-of-the-art conservation techniques that make our sauces 100% safe. For example, they are heated to a temperature of from 92 to 95 degrees Celsius and poured into jars, which are specially treated before filling.
RUBBIANO, EUROPE'S BIGGEST SAUCE PLANT
Finally, Rubbiano, the Barilla sauce plant in the countryside near Parma, where a passion for tradition, quality raw materials and state-of-the-art technologies meet to make this an innovative, eco-friendly plant.
Just a few years after it was opened in 2012, the Rubbiano plant is already the symbol of tradition which becomes innovation, the benchmark for all our sauce production. During 2018 the plant, designed to recall the layout and activities of a large family kitchen where sauces are being made, will be further expanded and also become Europe's largest, most efficient pasta sauce production plant. It will be one of themost sustainable in the world, aiming for -7% CO2eq emissions, -9% water consumption and over 95% waste recycling.
In addition, an important factor nowadays, once fully operational it will create about 60 additional permanent jobs.
“It will be a completely integrated plant, designed in-house and absolutely in line with the corporate strategy", explains Carlo Carteri, Head of European Pasta and Sauce Plants. “It will feature innovative robotic, digitalized plants and technology, in line with the Industry 4.0 philosophy, to even further improve the already high product quality and safety standards, combining efficiency with flexibility, with the aid of a sophisticated traceability system”.
So this is innovation that never forgets tradition, people and the environment: all central to our ready-made sauces, all central to Barilla.
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