Barilla Group has opened the Barilla Innovation & Technology Experience (BITE) in Parma, Italy, designed as a global hub to foster development across the company’s portfolio of pasta, sauces and bakery products
The company said the 150,000-square-f00t center represents a more than $25 million investment, with an additional $2.3 million per year dedicated to equipment upgrades.
The center brings together a team of 200 professionals, including food technologists, researchers, engineers, designers, professional tasters and chefs to develop the future of Barilla’s products.
Each year, 30 interns from Italy and abroad join Barilla’s RDQ community through dedicated internship or other post-graduate programs. Over the past two years, participants have also hailed from Belgium, Greece, Spain and Turkey.
The center also hosts an open innovation ecosystem that has 84 collaborations with universities and research centers in Italy and around the world.
“At Barilla, where the product has always been at the heart of everything we do, we know that a fundamental part of our work is to imagine and create quality products that must respond and adapt to people’s evolving needs,” said Guido Barilla, chairman of the Barilla Group.
“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.”
Product Development Under One Roof
Rooted in the heart of the Food Valley, the center develops products for all Barilla brands, bringing the taste of Italy to more than 100 countries.
Within its 52,000 square feet, the Innovation Center features dedicated areas for design thinking, where brainstorms turn into product ideas, tasting and sensory research, and experimental kitchens for pasta and bakery.
An additional 96,875 square feet of pilot plants house research laboratories and experimental production lines where Barilla teams develop, test and refine new products and processes, together with designing packaging solutions and applying tools to ensure food quality and safety.
“Innovating means placing people’s desires at the center,” said Michele Amigoni, head of RDQ at Barilla Group. “Understanding in depth how their needs related to food and nutrition will evolve, and from there turning ideas into reality that are new, good, and sustainable.
“The BITE will be a center open to the world, where it will be possible to see, touch and understand how Barilla envisions the future of food.”
Technology drives innovation
At the BITE, technologies such as the electronic nose and artificial intelligence-driven smart sensors optimize processes, from mapping aromatic profiles to enhancing pasta drying.
3D printing and holographic design systems enable prototyping and faster development cycles, while the rugosimeter (roughness meter) measures pasta texture at the micron scale, providing data to refine both product quality and the sensory experience.
These tools accelerate experimentation and ensure consistency, helping deliver the same Barilla quality to consumers around the world.
Global collaboration network
The BITE is the core of an international open innovation network of 84 partnerships with universities, research institutions and organizations around the world, from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany to Purdue University in the U.S. and Wageningen University in the Netherlands, as well as with selected agrifood and tech startups.
Since 2019, Barilla’s Good Food Makers accelerator has generated more than 1,200 startup applications from 41 countries and launched 28 collaborations, ranging from sustainable indoor agriculture to AI-driven logistics and ingredient traceability.
Sustainable design
Designed with sustainability and inclusion at its core, the BITE runs on renewable electric energy and is surrounded by research areas dedicated to the development of regenerative agriculture practices.
Through a partnership with Dynamo Academy, an Italian social enterprise promoting inclusive design, the building features accessible environments, tactile maps and flexible spaces, ensuring a welcoming experience for all.
The center employs 200 professionals. More than 1,000 samples are tasted each year by certified experts at the facility.
[RELATED: More Center Store news from The Shelby Report]