Barilla sustainable supply chain: "good pasta" is good for people and the environment
3 July 2018
Pasta is not only Italians' favorite food but also a fundamental dish for anyone in search of a healthy, balanced diet: at every meal, it ensures the right intake of complex, slow-release carbohydrates, protein and fiber. Therefore, experts recommend, it is important to eat the appropriate quantities of pasta with the right sauces to enjoy its full benefits.
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However, the mistaken belief that pasta is not healthy, and in particular that it helps to pile on the pounds, is "fake news" which still influences many people's eating habits, leading them to renounce the pleasure of a tasty dish of pasta on what is basically a false premise.
Because it is definitely an untruth.
In fact, recent research proves that not only is pasta nutritionally rich but, if included in a balanced diet in the quantities recommended by nutritionists, it has actually been shown to help people to lose weight thanks to its low sugar content.
These are the findings of a recent study published in the British Medical Journal Open performed on a sample of 2500 people. It emerged that not only did eating pasta not lead to an increase in weight or body fat in the sample group; in some cases eating pasta on a daily basis generated a slight reduction in weight. “To the point that, according to our findings, pasta does not have negative implications for body weight if eaten as part of a healthy diet”, the experts explain.
For all these reasons, every day Barilla – as underlined in our 2018 Sustainability Report – supplies the world with quality pasta, with the overall aim of constantly strengthening its promotion of “healthy food from responsible supply chains, inspired by the Italian lifestyle and the Mediterranean Diet”.
This social and environmental commitment makes all the difference between a pasta that just “tastes good” and a truly “good pasta”, good for people and the planet.
GOOD FOR YOU, GOOD FOR THE PLANET: KEYWORD, SUSTAINABILITY
For Barilla, therefore, producing genuine, high quality food is a mission. How does it do it?
In many ways, all of them convergent and complementary.
The starting-point is the many strict quality controls performed on the raw materials and the pasta itself to assess various factors, such as protein content, essential for the pasta's consistency and cooking properties, and grain color and health.
This is followed by a series of projects reflecting a well-structured strategy inspired by the guiding light of sustainability, as established by the Barilla Sustainable Farming Code and Sustainable High Quality Durum Wheat Production Regulations.
- The multiannual supply chain agreements signed with Italian farmers' associations to support quality and sustainability in the durum wheat supply chain are a first step: covering 57% of volumes purchased (430,000 tons), they involve more than 5,000 farms.
In 2017, more than 2,000 of the Italian farmers who work for Barilla grew 240,000 tons of durum wheat in a more sustainable way.
The application of the Sustainable High Quality Durum Wheat Production Regulations - rules and practical recommendations for optimizing crops and obtaining safe, high quality agricultural produce, and the use of the granoduro.net system, a software that helps farmers to optimize costs and growing techniques - has generated an average reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and costs for farmers of 10%.
- A focus on production methods and technologies is another step: in the Group's pasta factories, since 2010, Barilla has reduced water consumption by 31% and greenhouse gas emissions by 24% for every ton of pasta produced. At the same time, the new railway link opened in Parma in 2015 - the so-called wheat train - enabled an average savings of 1,100 tons of greenhouse gas per year, and 3,300 fewer trucks on Europe's roads. In addition, 2017 also saw the introduction of a new fleet of liquid natural gas fueled vehicles for road transport.
- Finally, the most important step, relating to people and their health. Barilla has been engaged for years on the research and development of exclusive wheat varieties, created with both environmental and economic sustainability in mind. 2017 saw the market launch of 10 new Better for You pasta products, a range of wholegrain cereal or pulse products helping consumers to achieve a better nutritional balance.
Pasta is a healthy, genuine food, one of the pillars of a good, healthy diet.
Barilla offers it to consumers around the world, after producing it in an environment-friendly, responsible way.
Which is the only approach to business that makes sense for a company like Barilla today, involving a real contribution to global food and nutrition challenges, in the awareness that: "feeding a constantly growing world population with good products, without damaging our Planet, is one of the biggest challenges of our age”. In the words of the Chairman Guido Barilla.
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