Barilla Group today (Nov. 18) opened its Barilla Innovation & Technology Experience (BITE), a global R&D center in Parma, Italy. Spanning nearly 150,000 sq. ft. and costing more than $25 million, it’s the company’s largest investment in food innovation in recent years.
BITE is designed as a global hub to foster development across the Barilla Group’s portfolio. Pasta, sauces and bakery are among the categories to be explored there by its team of 200, including food technologists, researchers, engineers, designers, professional tasters and chefs. Plus, each year, 30 interns from Italy and other countries join Barilla’s R&D community.
The new center includes areas for tasting and sensory research, experimental kitchens for pasta and bakery, and pilot plants, enabling new product development and processes plus packaging solutions.
The company said the center includes technologies such as the electronic nose, AI-driven smart sensors, mapping of aromatic profiles, enhanced pasta drying, 3D printing and holographic design.
BITE also is the center of an open innovation ecosystem that already has 84 active collaborations with universities and research centers in Italy and worldwide, including Purdue University in the U.S. and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany and Wageningen University in the Netherlands.