Shaping the future of food together
Food is an ever-evolving system: meeting today’s needs and anticipating tomorrow's challenges through innovation requires a collaborative approach. This is the ambition that stands behind the BITE – Barilla Innovation & Technology Experience: Barilla's global innovation hub, uniting 200 highly skilled experts and a worldwide network of universities and research centers to shape together the future of Barilla's food.
A space for innovation
The BITE — Barilla Innovation & Technology Experience is a new innovation center built next to the company's historic mills and pasta factories in Parma, in the same city where the story began 148 years ago. Spanning nearly 14,000 square meters - the equivalent of two football pitches - the BITE is conceived as a working space where people’s love for good food turns into hands on work to make improvements, and the space is designed to encourage cross fertilization of ideas.
Around 4,800 square meters are dedicated to the Innovation Center, with areas for design thinking, sensory analysis and tasting, two experimental kitchens for pasta and bakery, and an auditorium. A further 9,000 square meters house pilot plants and small production lines, where ideas are tested and processes refined.
Committed to Open Innovation
The BITE marks the beginning of a long-term journey dedicated to the ongoing innovation of Barilla’s products,so that they can continue to be of quality, consumed in line with balanced diet choices and accessible today and tomorrow. Along this innovation journey, culinary culture and gastronomic expertise continue to play a key role in shaping the sensory quality that defines our products.
From 2019
28
collaborations activated with start-ups ranging from sustainable indoor agriculture to AI-driven logistics and ingredient traceability.
84
collaborations with universities and research centers in Italy and abroad.
Over
1,000
samples tasted annually by certified experts.
More than
200
people work at BITE every day.
A space that welcomes everyone
What gives the BITE its real energy are the people. Food technologists, researchers, engineers, food designers, tasters and chefs work side by side, from the cropfields to the laboratory, from recipe development to sensory evaluation, reflecting the complexity behind foods that often appear simple on our tables. These collaborations reflect a shared conviction: any improvement requires collective responsibility.
Another expression of this integrated vision is the effort to reduce even physical barriers, for a truly inclusive approach to innovation. In collaboration with Barilla’s longstanding partner, Dynamo Academy, inclusive design principles have been studied and embedded into BITE’s spaces through accessible pathways, flexible environments and careful attention to diverse needs.
Where inclusion takes shape
A place dedicated to shaping the future of Barilla's food begins by ensuring that everyone can be part of building it.
This vision is now visible in four accessibility solutions integrated within the Innovation Center:
- Tactile maps positioned at strategic points to support independent orientation
- The cafeteria counter designed at two heights, with a lower groove allowing comfortable access for everyone
- Centrally located elevator with pedal controls for ease of use
- Height-adjustable desks, to choose the most suitable working position
Our way of doing business
Since 1877, we have been committed to offering quality food while respecting people and the environment, enriching and evolving this approach in relation to new knowledge that links the taste and goodness of our products to the way they are designed and manufactured, integrating what has long been defined as sustainability into our way of doing business.