Barilla Group opened the Barilla Innovation & Technology Experience (BITE) in Parma, the company’s largest investment in food innovation in recent years. The new center spans nearly 150,000 square feet and represents an investment of over USD 25 million, with an additional USD 2.3 million assigned every year to technology upgrades. The BITE center is dedicated to R&D in pasta, sauces and bakery.
The Innovation Center features dedicated areas for Design Thinking, from brainstorming to product ideas, tasting and sensory research, and experimental kitchens for pasta and bakery. An additional 96,875 square feet of pilot plants house advanced research laboratories and experimental production lines where Barilla teams develop new products and processes, as well as new packaging solutions and food quality and safety solutions.
The new Innovation Center brings together a team of 200 specialists in various fields, including food technologists, researchers, engineers, designers, professional tasters and chefs, to develop the future of Barilla’s food products. In addition, “Each year, 30 interns from Italy and abroad join Barilla’s RDQ community through dedicated internships or other post-graduate programs, with talent coming from countries such as Turkey, Belgium, Greece, and Spain. The center also hosts an open innovation ecosystem that already has 84 active collaborations with universities and research centers in Italy and worldwide,” Barilla reveals.
Guido Barilla, Chairman of the Barilla Group, comments on the new development facility: “The BITE, in addition to shaping what will be the products of tomorrow, represents a very clear entrepreneurial choice. Barilla must drive and anticipate trends and be able to engage with markets that are increasingly more open and international.”
At the BITE, technologies such as the electronic nose and AI-driven smart sensors optimize processes, from mapping aromatic profiles to enhancing pasta drying. 3D printing and holographic design systems enable rapid prototyping and faster development cycles, while the rugosimeter (roughness meter) measures pasta texture at the micron scale, providing comprehensive data to refine both product quality and the sensory experience. These tools accelerate experimentation and ensure consistency, Barilla explains.
The BITE is the core of an international open innovation network of 84 partnerships with universities, research institutions, and organizations worldwide, Barilla highlights, from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany to Purdue University in the US and Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Photos: Businesswire (Barilla)