Pasta and innovation: opportunity or challenge?

by Francesco Pantò Vice-President Product Development Pasta RD&Q Barilla

Here few ingredients needed to make sure that innovation happens: “the arms,” meaning the continuous effort made to build knowledge and skills in the area one wants to innovate, “the mind,” meaning intellectual curiosity and a never-ending desire to learn, and finally “the heart,” meaning passion and energy. Starting from these ingredients and their combination, a recipe is created that is unique because it encompasses the sensitivity and peculiar look of each person, group or company in defining the proportions, dosing and nuances that make each result different from any other. To introduce the concept of innovation in the pasta industry, I like to quote Federico Fellini, a genius who admirably said “life is a combination of magic and pasta.” It is the love for pasta that drives the desire to keep providing innovation, to which two fundamental questions are always related: innovate for whom and why innovate. Very often innovation is a difficult and frustrating process, which brings obstacles and failures with it, although “failure is not the opposite of success. It is stepping stone to success” (Arianna Huffington). However, mistakes, which bring unavoidable pain, are useful as they contribute to increasing and accelerating the process of acquiring knowledge on the topic around which one wants to innovate.

Pasta is a traditional product, so deeply rooted in Italian gastronomic culture. This might imply that there is no room or need for innovation. Moreover, today’s tradition was innovation yesterday. And today’s innovation that is relevant and will stand the test of time will become tradition tomorrow. There is no industry without innovation, just as there is no time without change. So, pasta cannot escape being innovated, even if it is debatable whether this is a need or rather an unavoidable law of natural evolution of tastes, consumption, culture and people. Pasta innovation must surely be ingrained the desires, if not the needs, of consumers. Identifying the directions of taste evolution is a key factor in understanding which direction innovation should take, in a significant and lasting manner. Furthermore, it is our responsibility to combine innovation with sustainability: today people also want products that are good for their health and contribute positively to the environment.

I count on having conveyed what I am convinced of and what I have experienced directly about innovation: we cannot stop the natural tension towards “new” and change that is inherent in every product, in every category and in every area of our lives. Either we drive change and promote innovation, or we will be changed and affected by what is new that will shake our certainties and change our horizons. Taking a closer look at pasta, we can define it as the combination of 3 foundational elements: 1) the ingredients, which in the most classic version can be traced back to one sole raw material: durum wheat semolina. In other words, “what pasta is made of;” 2) the technology, or the production process, i.e. the transformation phases that go from raw material to pasta production. In simple terms, “how pasta is made;” 3) the design and geometry of pasta. Here we mean “the shape of pasta” which defines how it appears to the eye and how it feels in the mouth once prepared. Let us start precisely with the shape and geometric characteristics of pasta, i.e. the design. There are more than 300 different shapes of pasta on the market, rising to over 1000 if we include all the possible variants and types - current and past -, and yet there is a hidden power, deep and magical, in the design of pasta that leads people to enthusiastically welcome and appreciate every and each new shape. Each shape, each type of pasta gives a different sensory experience. Therefore, pasta design innovation implies enhancing some sensorial and texture characteristics, such as thickness, shape, curve and surface. Every time a unique experience is delivered through a different pasta shape, people immediately perceive it as new, and over time that pasta can become familiar and truly loved if it meets certain appreciation criteria, sometimes explicit and entirely measurable, and sometimes not even fully decoded. A delight that consumers find when they see, taste and enjoy a great product that is well-done and excellently executed, meaning “360° good,” including aesthetically beautiful, functionally perfect, gastronomically delicious. It is very inspiring to make people participate in this innovation process for pasta design. We recently asked design specialists to imagine the new shapes they would like to see on the market. The competition was enthusiastically accepted: we received proposals from more than a thousand designers from all over the world and around 2500 projects were submitted. Pasta design is still a key factor that stirs up people’s interest and passion, both in imagining a new pasta and in turning it into a real product, and above all in fully enjoying and sharing it on the plate. And it is precisely with this spirit that Cascatelli were born. After at least three years of research and testing, Dan Pashman, The Sporkful podcast host, created what he considers a perfect new pasta shape: pasta curls with wavy festoons on their sides. A short pasta shape that, according to its creator, combines the qualities of different shapes and geometries that have been brought together in a completely new way here. According to Cascatelli inventor, this kind of pasta provides the highest level of satisfaction in three appreciation criteria, which are incidentally his neologisms:

- Sauceability - how readily the sauce adheres to the shape, thanks to the rough surface and certain angles that pick up more sauce;

- Forkability - how easily it is to get the shape on the fork; profile is inspired by rigatone, with the same motion of fusillo. Just like a sheet of papyrus paper, its shape rolls up and unrolls to accommodate the sauce and generate a pleasant and intense surprise from the very first bite.” Innovation can also concern the production process. We are naturally inclined to think that technology is about science, while design is closer to art. Art and science get together even in “the way pasta is made;” we realise this as soon as we enter a pasta factory and breathe in the movements and the operations of a process that can be summarised in the main three phases of kneading, extruding and drying: all the technological characteristics and sensory values of the product merge, immediately turning into an extraordinary and ever-changing culinary experience. What is certain is that there is no right or wrong process for making pasta. There is an optimal process for the type and shape of pasta you want to produce because it enhances the culinary values you want to give the product. In my opinion, the innovation proposed by 3D-printed pasta (BluRhapsody® by Barilla) lies as much in the production technology (both fantastic and futuristic!) as in the possibility of revolutionising pasta consumption itself, proposing it as “finger food.” Hence, 3D-printed pasta becomes the protagonist not only of a traditional meal, but also in alternative and more unstructured moments of consumption.

- Toothsinkability - how satisfying it is to bite into the pasta, linked to the uneven thickness and to the profile that provide contrasts and greater complexity when chewing.

Barilla Papiri is another example of innovation in pasta design, combined with acknowledged aesthetic appeal and exceptional organoleptic performance. A new and amazing shape, born from the creative collaboration with Italian designer Walter De Silva, who commented: “In my career, I have designed people’s cars. With Barilla, I designed Italian pasta for people all over the world. Papiri is where innovation meets tradition. Its

As such, there is magic in pasta, which helps to discover the magic of life by being the perfect companion to its most beautiful and joyful moments. The other area for innovation is about the ingredients, the recipe. Pasta is incredibly simple in its classical composition. Semolina pasta is simply obtained from durum wheat which is ground into semolina and then, once kneaded and extruded, it takes the form of pasta. What in the durum wheat can make the difference in the finished product? Undoubtedly, the quantity and quality of proteins (gluten), the colour and the vitreousness are quality characteristics on which the supply chain works unceasingly in an effort of continuous improvement.

right up to the table. An example on this is Aureo, the Italian Top Quality wheat used for Voiello ambitious and far-sighted research and development project that began over twenty years ago, which led Barilla in the United States in 2004 - just when it was reaching almost 20% of market share, thus becoming the leading brand in the US pasta market - to launch Pasta PLUS, a highly innovative line of pasta that offers the benefits of proteins, fibres and healthy Omega-3 fats through entirely natural ingredients such as cereals and pulses. In recent years, we have thoroughly reassessed this product taking into account consumers’ growing awareness of environmental sustainability, and have introduced a revised version which gives more emphasis to proteins. Now Protein + pasta is made only with vegetable proteins from pulses, i.e. a 100% plant-

As a forward-looking conclusion, I love to take up an enlightening quote from Pietro Barilla who recalled, while referring to innovation and where to turn our eyes: “Everything is done for the future, forge ahead with courage.”

Francesco Pantò