Anticipating risks, building trust: our approach to quality and food safety
29 June 2026
In today’s increasingly complex and interconnected world, ensuring the quality and safety of the food we bring to the table has never been more important. At our Group, this commitment is reflected in the everyday work of the Quality & Food Safety team, which operates across the entire supply chain with a scientific, preventive and continuous improvement approach.
From analysing raw materials and monitoring production processes to listening closely to consumers and anticipating emerging risks, we rely on advanced, internationally recognised systems to safeguard food quality and safety. Our goal is simple: to foster a shared culture of quality and give consumers the confidence to choose our products every day.
To highlight this commitment and offer a behind-the-scenes look at our daily work, we organised “The Q Side”, a week-long event hosted at our BITE, Barilla’s new Innovation & Technology Experience center. The immersive experience brought together colleagues, customers, suppliers, media representatives and institutions for a journey through the challenges, technologies, processes and people that help ensure the quality and safety of our products, from field to fork.
OUR RAW MATERIALS: WHERE IT ALL BEGINS
Every one of our products starts with the careful selection of raw materials. In “Raw Material,” the first immersive experience of The Q Side, we chose an unexpected, almost cosmic visual language to bring this moment to life: kinetic sand that visitors could shape into biscuits designed either to hold together or crumble apart, depending on their quality. A simple yet powerful metaphor that illustrates how essential it is to begin with safe ingredients and packaging materials that meet the high standards we set for quality.
Every day, our Global Supplier Quality Management team evaluates the specific risks associated with each ingredient, carefully assessing supplier performance, reliability and product characteristics. From durum wheat selected grain by grain to eggs and packaging materials, every element is checked, monitored and co-designed. Much of this work happens behind the scenes, yet it is fundamental – like an immune system quietly protecting our products and everyone who relies on their quality and goodness.
FROM OUR PRODUCTION PLANTS TO YOUR TABLE: A MULTI-LAYERED PROTECTION SYSTEM
Once the raw materials have been carefully selected, the journey continues inside our production facilities. Through the immersive “Plant Virtual Tour” experience, visitors were taken inside the Rubbiano Condiments plant to discover firsthand how we protect our products from physical, chemical and biological risks.
For us, every stage of production is managed through rigorous procedures and advanced control systems – from X-ray technology used to detect foreign bodies to heat treatments designed to eliminate potentially harmful microorganisms. It is a staged system of protective barriers, each more refined than the last as the product moves toward completion.
And our commitment does not stop once the product leaves the factory. Across the entire supply chain, and through constant dialogue with consumers – more than 300,000 pieces of feedback are analysed each year – we work continuously to ensure that the quality of our products remains intact right up to the moment they are eaten.
THE EVOLUTION OF QUALITY CONTROL: FROM MANUAL SKILLS TO DATA SCIENCE
Quality has always evolved alongside our history. That is why, in our third immersive experience, “Quality Control Evolution,” we set out to show how our approach to quality control and monitoring has transformed over time.
What was once driven primarily by experience, manual expertise and human intuition is now increasingly supported by data, analytical methods and digital technologies. While it was once enough to squeeze rigatoni between your fingers to judge its texture, today we rely on instruments such as dynamometers to obtain precise, objective and repeatable measurements. Analyses that once took a long time can now be completed in seconds, while advanced technologies enable us to verify every detail and preserve the distinctive shapes and iconic characteristics of our products.
It is a clear example of how quality has evolved into a true science: objective, measurable, data-driven and constantly advancing, allowing us to meet the expectations of consumers around the world.
MANAGING UNCERTAINTY BY ANTICIPATING RISKS
However, in our line of work, not all risks are already known. Some emerge over time, evolving alongside changes in the global landscape. This is why our Group is committed to a proactive approach that allows us not only to manage risks, but also to anticipate them.
During the Risk Management session, participants stepped into our team’s shoes through an interactive experience designed to help them identify and “neutralise” potential threats. Behind this activity lies a highly structured system. One example is our Emerging Risks Program – a veritable radar that tracks signals from scientific research, international alerts, global trends and data sources around the world.
Thus, every year, we assess dozens of emerging risks, developing concrete mitigation plans well ahead of regulatory requirements and working closely with companies, universities and institutions to promote collaboration, knowledge-sharing and prevention.
THE Q SIDE: MUCH MORE THAN AN EVENT
The journey through The Q Side concluded in the auditorium with a series of talks entitled “World of Change,” focused on the challenges and opportunities ahead. In the world in which we live, which is increasingly shaped by climate change, technological innovation and complex food systems, our Group remains committed to staying at the forefront of our sector.
This is why we work across multiple fronts: safeguarding quality today, improving our systems in the medium term, and anticipating the uncertainties of future scenarios. Achieving this requires a multidisciplinary approach, ongoing investment, continuous training, digitalisation and innovation, all supported by a shared culture of quality that involves every person across the entire supply chain.
From preventing food fraud to developing data-driven predictive systems, from rigorous raw material controls to best practices in manufacturing and distribution, our commitment is guided by a simple yet fundamental principle: anticipating risks before they emerge and striving to improve every single day. Because food quality and safety are not just processes to manage or standards to meet. They are a shared responsibility towards the people who choose our products and continue to place their trust in us.
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