Parma & its enterprises

FOOD INDUSTRY

• Flour milling

S trictly connected with the production of bread and pasta and an integral part of the wheat production cycle is the milling industry which early in man’s history replaced hand grinding. Water-driven mills were first introduced during the age of ancient Rome, but their use only became widespread around the year 1000. From that moment on, canals and flour mills became part of the normal landscape of cities and towns. In 1861, Parma numbered 372 mills (three of which were windmills) employing about 900 millstones and over 600 employees. Through the end of the 1800s, there were scores of working water mills within the city walls, but these were gradually replaced by electrically- powered mills and stone grinding was replaced by cylinder grinding which was more sanitary and highly efficient.

Today, the milling industry in Parma has 7 mills with about 200 employees. Together, their productive capacity amounts to more than 8,500 quintals of flour per day. Their output includes common wheat flour (used primarily in the production of bread, pizza, baked goods and in household consumption) and durum wheat flours, used almost exclusively in the production of pasta.

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