Surpassing the 100 million euro mark in sales and recently expanding its facilities with a new headquarters in Canada, Andriani S.p.A.(https://www.andrianispa.com/) consolidates the model of a business focused on generating a new era of nutrition, capable of promoting a sustainable nutritional model for the planet and charting a path of conscious entrepreneurship. The Apulian company is, in fact, a benchmark among the world’s leading producers of gluten-free pasta from grains and legumes and, as a Benefit Corporation, has among its goals the development of society and the environment also through the development of a route to carbon neutrality.
With 9 lines and 40 thousand tons/year of total capacity in the production of pasta destined mostly for private label products and sales under the Felicia or Biori brand, Andriani develops and distributes naturally gluten-free organic foods for people with celiac disease while also appealing to health-conscious people, sportsmen and younger people. As of 2021, it has become a Founding Member of the Global Compact Network Italy for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda and has entered for the second year the ranking dedicated to Blue Collar workers compiled by Great Place to Work® Italy for the well-being, not only of consumers but also of employees and its value chain. We talk about this with Michele Andriani, CEO of Andriani S.p.A.
Can nutrition contribute to personal improvement?
Our activity was born precisely to answer this question. In 2009, we carried out the first study: we wanted to understand which diseases were the most prevalent in the world, and when we analyzed the rankings of the top thirty best-selling drugs, we found that intestinal and metabolic problems topped the charts. We then asked ourselves what nutritional ingredients were capable of benefiting the body in the face of these ailments and came to consider naturally gluten-free ingredients such as cereals, pseudo cereals, and legumes. We have initiated numerous collaborations with the medical faculties of universities such as the Federico II University in Naples, with whom we conducted a study on the relationship between glycemic index in diabetic patients and buckwheat pasta intake. For oats, a food that is also popular in Northern Europe for the antidepressant effects it brings and known by us in Puglia as the main food for horses also for this reason, experience and work have shown that it is a functional food not only for nutrition but also for psychophysical balance.
How did Andriani come about and what does it want to become in the food system?
Andriani was born from a scientific study aimed at identifying a technology that could offer the possibility of transforming gluten-free products in the most natural way possible, avoiding, above all, the extreme use of chemistry. The second purpose is to endow gluten-free products with enough quality to make them a taste pleasure not only for the intolerant. Goals that allowed us to participate in a partnership formed by a Swiss multinational food processing technology manufacturer and the University of Zurich. From this collaboration, we began to introduce to the pasta market an innovative technology that allows flour to be able to consolidate into a solid dough to become pasta through thermal and physical action as never seen before.
Let’s talk about the value of innovation
Certainly, continuous research and study, especially of ingredients, are also behind the opening of our pasta factory, which has allowed us to enter the world of agro-industrial production as processors. Aiming not only to find a competitive advantage in a global market where product standardization makes it increasingly difficult for a manufacturer to be unique, but also to put the consumer first in company policies. In fact, we look at the 17 goals contained in the UN 2030 Paris Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially as it relates to people’s conscious production and consumption.
In the so-called “relationship economy,” the consumer is not the end point but the one around whom production and innovation are built as needed.
Consumers are increasingly discerning, carefully analyzing the claims described on the packaging, doing research, asking about the processing methods and supply chain processes, and taking an interest in the ethical aspects behind the product. So we aim to act in the complex world of agribusiness to transform food and give consumers what they expect at a fair price. With circularity present as much in the different stages of production as in the supply chain and logistics, ending in retail distribution. Within this circular business model, we have combined ecosystem factors and stakeholders in a way that maps negative impacts. And, also for this, we have entered into a partnership with the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo by forming a supply chain pact with all our suppliers that includes the identification of goals related to sustainable development.
This is exactly what the European reporting model calls for, which is not only to measure one’s sustainability goals as a company but to do so for the entire supply chain.
For two years we did not impose technical specifications on our suppliers, but since this year we have demanded, within this partnership, the identification of some common goals. This means empowering the entire supply chain to make commitments to the consumer by working on the concept of the supply chain to transform it into a value-creating network.
How does the circular economy enter the Andriani world?
Five years ago we signed our first strategic sustainability plan that saw us develop 120 activities that could work on all 17 goals of the UN Agenda. Although we were advised to focus on only some of these objectives, we chose to work on all of them as they were extremely interrelated. From the point of view of the environmental dimension, for example, carbon neutrality and waste reduction are two important macro goals for a processor that cannot be separated, however, from the social and economic dimensions.
How to incorporate this into not only corporate but also social governance?
Consider one of the basic principles of the circular economy, which is the transformation of waste into useful raw material to create new products. Our strategy involves mapping all waste, waste, and processing wastes to figure out how to reuse them. The first project in this regard involved spirulina seaweed. The reuse of appropriately purified processing wastewater then becomes the seed bed for the cultivation of seaweed allowing us on the one hand to reduce water waste and on the other hand to produce a new functional food. Contextually, for every kilogram of spirulina we produce we absorb 1.8 kilograms of CO2 from the atmosphere. In this direction, next year we will start with an internal CO2 Capture project that will see us install a system to capture it from both the chimneys of the pulp dryers, the chimney of the trigeneration plant, and the chimney of the biomass boiler. The CO2 will be liquefied and reused in production processes, including in part to sanitize agricultural produce from the countryside in a non-chemical way.
Other examples?
All the waste from farming, the mill, or from the legume pulping stage will be reused to produce a functional dog food that is complete and 100% vegan, with the addition of spirulina algae as well. We have, then, other circular economy projects in which we are involved with the biomethane production chain, as well as one dedicated to pyrolysis combined with anaerobic biodigestion, a project in which the inputs will be waste and the outputs will be partly flavorings that can be used in food and partly an active material for the production of hydrogen and charcoal. Another project we are involved in involves the reuse of our processing and plastic waste to produce a compound capable of creating a rigid wood, the so-called wood plastic composite.
Right now talking about food means talking about what?
To talk about food and its intake is to talk about the approach to life: food builds cultures, influences generations, economic dynamics, and the ecosystem. At the same time, it also represents the pleasure of being together and builds those relationships that otherwise would never be built.
Let’s talk about the fourth dimension of sustainability, the nutritional dimension.
Nutritional sustainability exists when we can create a positive impact on nature. Internal goals must make sure that it improves not only the condition of the individual, but the ecosystem on which the person feeds. If we can restore all the necessary macrobiota to our bodies, since we currently have one hundredth of the bacterial flora than we did a hundred years ago, we will use less medication, be able to have a better prepared body, be better psychophysically, and impact the economy less.
