When it comes to pasta flour, Italy’s company Felicia believes there is room for some healthier alternatives than durum wheat semolina. Based in Puglia, the company recently launched a “colorful revolution” in pasta, built on the natural colors of cereals and legumes such as buckwheat, spirulina, and red lentils. These are some of the foundational ingredients to Felicia’s pasta—and all are naturally gluten-free and organically farmed. Last year, the company launched an awareness campaign highlighting that pasta made from cereals and legumes has more protein, fiber, and minerals than pasta made with semolina. The success of that campaign boosted Felicia’s profile and increased sales.
“We employ the best ingredients that nature gives us,” Carlo Stocco, managing director for North America at Andriani, Felicia’s parent company, told Fast Company “and we promote a more responsible approach to food consumption.” A canny understanding of how people think about food—while creating good-tasting healthy alternatives in the supermarket—has earned Felicia a place among Fast Company’s Brands That Matter for 2024.
FELICIA CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Felicia’s innovative approach to pasta is designed in part to appeal to consumers’ growing appetite for healthy foods that don’t skimp on taste. In addition to its commitment to healthful ingredients, Felicia fosters biodiversity, uses sustainable production processes, and supports soil-friendly regenerative agricultural practices that use a broader variety of flours. Its pasta plant in southern Italy is carbon neutral, employing solar power and a biomass boiler that uses food waste scraps as fuel to reduce natural gas consumption by up to 90%.
The facility recovers water from the pasta production process to cultivate spirulina algae, an ingredient full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that is used in some of the brand’s pasta. Felicia also helps its farmers improve their operations by adopting environmentally friendly cultivation practices and deploying high-tech tools, such as sensors that can monitor crop health.
TASTY ALTERNATIVES
Still, Stocco understands that pasta made from cereals and legumes might be a hard sell to a public that finds those flavors bland. But as Felicia formally enters the North American market—with plans to build a state-of-the-art production plant in Canada—Stocco is confident that consumers can get past this preconception. He’s seen it happen in Italy, and at trade shows where Felicia invites attendees to try the pasta for themselves.