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New Barilla sauce plant is committed to quality

A new $53 million facility near Parma, Italy, uses extensive quality controls from the field to the final package to ensure the most authentic Italian food experience.

Barilla uses a 42-head rotary volumetric filler that normally runs at 400 bottles/min on each line. The fillers offer a valve system that provides maximum dosing accuracy with the least mechanical stress on the product.
Barilla uses a 42-head rotary volumetric filler that normally runs at 400 bottles/min on each line. The fillers offer a valve system that provides maximum dosing accuracy with the least mechanical stress on the product.

High quality: That is the goal for most consumer packaged goods companies when manufacturing and producing their products. However, for Italian foods company Barilla Group, their commitment to high-quality product has been brought to whole new levels with the opening in July 2012 of a new sauce plant in Rubbiano di Solignano, near Parma, Italy. From raw materials through packaging, every step in the process has been engineered to result in the highest-quality product that most closely resembles homemade sauces made in the Italian tradition.

“We create the quality of the product step-by-step, both before and during production,” says Marco Sacchelli, Rubbiano Plant Director. “This is the real difference between us and our competitors.”

Until the opening of its new €40 million (approximately US$53 million) plant, Barilla relied on an external tomato supplier and co-packer to produce its sauces for the Italian market as well as for 100 other countries outside the U.S. As Sacchelli explains, by internalizing production of its sauces, Barilla now has more control over the quality of the product and a greater opportunity to expand its recipes and capacity.

“With the co-packer, we used only one line and one technology, and we adapted that to the specific recipe,” says Sacchelli. “When we built this plant, we dedicated two lines for the production of two different kinds of products. We also have the space for future development, and we will be able to acquire new equipment and technologies as they become available to help us produce the best-quality product.”

The facility’s two lines each include dedicated processing, filling, and packaging equipment, with one line producing tomato-based sauces, and the other, pesto. While the processing portion of the lines differs according to the sauces’ requirements, the packaging lines mirror one another, with equipment selected for minimal stress on the product and packaging, traceability for each jar on the line, and the reduction of water for sustainability purposes, among other things.

“The main driver of our technical solutions for packaging was soft handling of the jars to reduce the risk of breakage,” says Michele Amigoni, Group Supply Chain Packaging Design & Standards Director for Barilla.

Adds Sacchelli, “Having a completely automated line also helps manage flexibility and efficiency.”

Following the Italian food model
Fourth-generation family-owned Barilla was established in 1877 and today is one of the largest Italian food manufacturers in the world, producing pasta, ready-made sauces, bakery products, and crisp breads, distributed to more than 100 countries worldwide. Currently, Barilla operates 30 plants including five mills in nine countries. Every year, 1.5 million tons of product under 14 brand names leave its plants. Core to its business is the Italian food model, which “combines superior-quality ingredients with simple recipes, offering the five senses unique experiences,” reads its 2012 sustainable business report.

Barilla is headquartered in Parma, part of a region of Italy known as the Food Valley, renowned for its high-quality meats, pastas, and vegetables. “Around this tradition of food has also grown technologies for the production, transformation [process of turning tomatoes to pulp], and packaging of food,” explains Barilla Media and External Relations Manager Marina Morsellino.

Located near Parma, the new 15,000-sq-m (49,000-sq-ft) Barilla sauce plant is ideally situated to source the highest-quality tomatoes and basil in the Food Valley. For example, Sacchelli says, basil is sourced from locations less than two hours away. Not only does this ensure the freshest ingredients, but it also minimizes the impact to the environment resulting from transportation. “With 80 percent of the base for the red sauce coming from tomatoes, this is very important,” says Sacchelli.

Also sourced locally is most of the equipment used at the plant. “Eighty percent of the technologies used in the plant come from this area. In the packaging area, the filling machines, conveying systems, and palletizing equipment are from local companies,” says Morsellino. “We worked directly with the suppliers to develop these technologies for our requirements.”

The plant, with 105 employees, produced 9,000 tons of sauce in its first year and is scheduled to produce more than 35,000 tons in 2013. By extending the number of days and shifts the plant is operational, it has the capacity to reach 60,000 tons/yr. The construction of the plant also allows for an additional 10,000 sq m (3,300 sq ft) of space in which could be added two more lines.

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