Dr. Joyce Eckhoff, EARC agronomist, is shown with Maroun Atallah, Barilla pasta plant representative, Parma, Italy
Maroun Atallah, Group Science technology and Quality Grains and Food Plant researcher from Barilla attended the Eastern Agricultural Research Center’s field day last week. Atallah, who traveled from the Barilla plant in Parma, Italy, came to the field day to inspect the quality of durum wheat grown in the area. “Quality durum wheat is important for our supply chain,” Atallah remarked. “This is an important area for durum wheat in America and we wanted to see the quality of the durum grown here.”
The Barilla plant in Parma, the largest pasta plant in the world, has 11 lines for producing regular pasta with different cuts, 6 lines for producing egg noodles, and 1 line for producing tortellini. The company makes 64 different cuts of pasta, because Italians believe that every sauce requires a different cut of pasta. The Chinese may have invented pasta, but the Italians have turned it into an art form.
Barilla, the third largest producer of baked goods, also manufactures a wide variety of cookies, pastries and cakes, made from spring wheat.
A family-owned company, Barilla first opened its doors for business in 1877 as a bakery that also sold homemade pasta. Since that time it has grown to become the largest pasta plant in the world.
Barilla came to America12 years ago and built a plant and a mill in Ames, IA. The company built a second U.S. plant in New York state in 2008. Barilla has rapidly increased its market share, including sales in the U.S., since going international. Barilla pasta products are available locally.
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