The Changing World of Pasta

Do you believe that the pasta industry in the US is on the brink of a dramatic market shift as much as we do?

As margins get tighter, and sustainability becomes more top of mind in boardrooms and classrooms across the world, large consumer food manufacturers are pushing to drive out more costs, be more sustainable and differentiate their products on the shelf. 

Competitive and Changing Markets

Our experience is that your company has probably invested countless hours optimizing your current packaging and logistics processes in such a competitive and saturated market. You have wrung nearly every extra penny of procurement savings that you can in order to add value to your bottom line for your stakeholders and offset any expense volatility of what actually goes IN your product.

While the prices for ingredient markets have been improving, these futures are always uncertain. For a new approach to efficiency and optimization, it's time to say: "It's what's on the outside that counts!"

The status quo for the pasta industry here in the US is represented by a sea of cartons and considering just a drastic change may be daunting. 

Why is challenging this "norm" an imperative?


A Better Way: Flexible Packaging

Retail aesthetics, shelf life, and convenience are recognized attributes of flexible packaging. While the benefits are clear from a branding standpoint, what if there is so much more to this switch than what your customers will experience? According to our calculations from working closely with several substrate suppliers around the country, we have come up with some astounding metrics that justify the move from cartons to film. Just on the substrate costs per unit, we estimate that this switch could result in up to 80% lower costs. Are you ready to take the leap in transforming your business?

Short Cut Pasta Packaging - Sustainability

Case Study: La Molisana and Rovema

In the Italian market, the focus for pasta today is on quality equipage and a less-is-more mentality. By using simple recipes with superior ingredients, La Molisana has gone above and beyond for over 100 years and set themselves apart in the market. In the same way that they are selective in what goes into their pasta, they are selective in the equipment to package it and there are many reasons detailed in the case study above of why they have chosen to partner with Rovema. 

La Molisana has nine lines running Rovema equipment and is now exporting to their pasta to the States.

Why Rovema?

Thoughtful, broad & deep industry and consumer product insight are key characteristics needed to successfully install and operate VFFS packaging systems. With over 60 years of industry experience and numerous patents, Rovema has the expertise and partnership you need to navigate with you through this exciting transition.

Our machines are built to run for decades and as our history with many global pasta companies like La Molisana demonstrates, we support our customers not only during the initial installation but through every film and package design innovation and go above and beyond with our service and maintenance programs. 

We believe that with the right partner, changing up your space in the pasta aisle is going to generate substantial savings and an ROI you can be proud of. Our machines are some of the most reliable in the market and the operating system with which they're equipped is award winning for its intuitiveness and ease of use. During the transition, we will be with you every step of the way with on-site and multimedia based training for your teams as well as world-class aftermarket support for any maintenance parts, conversion requests or service from the lifetime of your machine, guaranteed. That's the beauty of American market knowledge propelled by German engineering.

You May be Asking:

Do we have to go from paperboard to plastic?

Absolutely not! Rovema's machines are built to run a wide array of different films whether they are paper, clear film or multi-layered film. Also, we understand that currently being able to show off your product in the package using clear film or a window is important and guess what, paper bags are able to be manufactured with a window just like cartons!

Doesn't shipping pallets of boxes containing cartons versus bags add a lot of structural stability? Am I going to end up offsetting my savings in corrugated up-gauging? 

Even though flexible packaging itself is less prone to permanent cosmetic damage than a carton during shipping, we know no one wants a bag of crushed penne from the bottom layer of the pallet. We work very closely with several packaging substrate suppliers all over the country and the short answer to these questions is no. Because each unit of pasta takes up so much less space when in flexible packaging, you marginally increase compression strength when you go to a shorter box. Amazing, right?

I understand the savings, but how many bags per minute can I expect to be able to produce?

We can achieve up to 160 bags of pasta per minute depending on the shape of the pasta and type of film. Contact us in the form at the top of the page or in the chat feature and we can give you a more accurate estimation depending on the direction you're looking to take for your film.

Have other questions we didn't cover? Ask an expert in the help chat to the right!