cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
The Shape of the Pasta Industry - Slate
There’s a reason penne and linguine are still missing from stores.
With Americans stocking up on affordable, shelf-stable foods, pasta has become a mainstay of the quarantine pantry—when customers can find any. Because of a considerable jump in demand, pasta companies have been reporting roughly 30 percent increases in the volume they have to produce to keep grocery stores supplied. “Dry pasta [production] had been flat for the past number of years, and it has significantly increased since the pandemic began,” said Carl Zuanelli, chairman of the National Pasta Association and CEO of Nuovo Pasta. “We really started to see panic buying toward the end of February, beginning of March.”
But why, in at least some places, are pasta shelves still bereft of product? It’s not like we’re importing it from coronavirus-scarred Italy. The vast majority of pasta consumed in the U.S. is produced domestically, including from Italian brands like Barilla. The angel hair or penne on your plate originally came from durum wheat grown on a farm likely located in North Dakota or Montana, where the hot, arid days and cool nights allow the amber-colored crop to thrive. After the harvest, millers grind the durum to produce coarse semolina flour, which factories can then mix with water and extrude to make pasta. With the ongoing surge in demand, every part of the process has had to shift into a higher gear.
There’s a reason penne and linguine are still missing from stores.
With Americans stocking up on affordable, shelf-stable foods, pasta has become a mainstay of the quarantine pantry—when customers can find any. Because of a considerable jump in demand, pasta companies have been reporting roughly 30 percent increases in the volume they have to produce to keep grocery stores supplied. “Dry pasta [production] had been flat for the past number of years, and it has significantly increased since the pandemic began,” said Carl Zuanelli, chairman of the National Pasta Association and CEO of Nuovo Pasta. “We really started to see panic buying toward the end of February, beginning of March.”
But why, in at least some places, are pasta shelves still bereft of product? It’s not like we’re importing it from coronavirus-scarred Italy. The vast majority of pasta consumed in the U.S. is produced domestically, including from Italian brands like Barilla. The angel hair or penne on your plate originally came from durum wheat grown on a farm likely located in North Dakota or Montana, where the hot, arid days and cool nights allow the amber-colored crop to thrive. After the harvest, millers grind the durum to produce coarse semolina flour, which factories can then mix with water and extrude to make pasta. With the ongoing surge in demand, every part of the process has had to shift into a higher gear.