🏭 Barilla

Barilla is an Italian family company from Parma that has made pasta since 1877, when Pietro Barilla opened a bread and pasta shop. The group has 30 production sites in 11 countries and sells in more than 100 countries, and pasta brings in 46.6% of its revenue. ¹²¹⁴

From bakery to factory. Documents mention a baker, Ovidius Barilla, member of Parma's bakers' guild, as early as 1553. After a failed expansion, Pietro Barilla Senior sold his shop in 1894 but rebuilt the business, and by 1905 the family made 2,500 kg of pasta a day. In 1910 his sons Gualtiero and Riccardo built a factory with 80 workers, and in 1936–1937 they installed six continuous presses that for the first time combined mixer, kneader and press. ¹¹³

The first box and the blue pack. In 1937 came Fosfina, pasta enriched with phosphorus and sold in a box, at a time when Barilla still sold mostly loose pasta. In 1952 the designer Erberto Carboni created the cut-egg logo and the blue background of the pack, and the campaign "With Barilla pasta it's always Sunday" won the Palma d'oro advertising award. That same year the company closed its bakery to focus on pasta. ¹¹³

Advertising and Pedrignano. From 1965 the singer Mina starred in more than 60 films for the TV programme Carosello. In 1967 an Italian law required pasta to be sold packaged, and in 1969 the Pedrignano plant opened near Parma, with a 120-metre line making 1,000 tonnes of pasta a day, then the largest pasta factory in the world. ¹¹³

The American years. At the end of 1970 the Barilla brothers sold a controlling stake to the US company Grace, while Pietro kept 1% of the shares. Under Grace, Voiello (1973) and the new bakery brand Mulino Bianco (1975) joined the group. ¹²¹³ In 1979 Pietro bought the company back, and Federico Fellini directed a commercial for Barilla to mark the occasion. ¹¹³

Today. The group bought Greece's Misko (1991), joined forces with Turkey's Filiz (1994), opened US plants in Ames (1999) and Avon (2007), and launched gluten-free pasta in 2014. ¹¹³ In 2025 group revenue was 4.837 billion euros, its global pasta market share by volume rose to 18.5%, and prices of some dry and egg pasta were cut by about 10% on average. ¹⁴

Ranges and wheat. The Italian site lists nine pasta ranges: I Classici shapes, bronze-drawn Al Bronzo, egg pasta Emiliane, wholewheat Integrale, gluten-free Senza Glutine made from maize and rice, Protein+ with pea protein, small Piccolini, Specialità and Legumotti made from pulses. ^345678910 For farmers Barilla wrote a ten-point Decalogue for growing durum wheat, and since 2011 it has used the granoduro.net platform with disease forecasts. ¹¹

What is in the pack. Spaghetti No. 5 contain only durum wheat semolina and water; 100 g provide 359 kcal, 12.8 g protein, 70.9 g carbohydrate and 3 g fibre. They cook in 9 minutes, with 1 litre of water and 7 g of salt per 100 g of pasta. Barilla also suggests passive cooking: turn off the heat after 2 minutes and cover the pot, which by its estimate cuts CO₂ emissions by up to 80%. ¹⁵

Why it matters to you. In Italy dry pasta may be made only from durum wheat semolina and water, and soft wheat flour is banned except for export pasta; packs for the Italian market state the country where the wheat was grown and the country where it was milled. ¹⁶ The number on the pack, such as No. 5, is Barilla's code for the shape, not a grade or quality. ¹⁵