Andriani
Andriani in southern Italy is one of the most innovative companies on the Italian food scene. It uses naturally gluten-free, nutritionally rich raw materials to create tasty and healthy pasta products, building sustainability and circularity into its processes at every step. With courage, vision, and ingenuity, as well as a close partnership with Bühler, it is achieving its goals and thriving in its markets.
Janet Anderson, June 2025
Among the olive groves and rolling hills of Puglia in southern Italy, the ancient town of Gravina is home to Andriani S.p.A., one of Italy’s most innovative pasta-making companies. Here, in the heart of a traditional pasta-making region, visitors are immediately impressed by the company’s vibrant atmosphere, its spirit of curiosity and openness, and the deep commitment to sustainability that shines through everywhere.
The company was founded in 2009 by the brothers Michele and Francesco Andriani, who inherited 40 years of milling know-how from their father, Felice. “At the beginning, we were focused on identifying technology that could allow us to make very good products,” says Michele Andriani, CEO. “But the real inspiration came when we saw that by combining our technology with the natural beneficial power of our ingredients, we could have a positive impact on people’s health and on our planet.”
Today, Andriani’s factory in Gravina is entirely dedicated to making gluten-free pasta, producing 40,000 tonnes of pasta a year from over 60 different raw materials in over 90 different recipes – and it implements circular economy principles wherever possible with the aim of becoming carbon neutral in its own operations. It has also expanded and opened a second pasta factory in Canada.
Key to achieving its goals is a close partnership with Bühler and a shared set of values. “What brought us together was Andriani’s vision to transform any side stream or waste stream from its pasta production into something valuable and healthy for people and the planet,” explains Giulia Manzolini, Team Manager for Environmental Quantification at Bühler. “We help Andriani to do this by combining many different solutions from our diverse portfolio, from grain reception and milling to pasta lines, pet food production, and environmental impact services.”
The market Andriani serves is growing at a higher pace than conventional pasta. Over recent years, demand for gluten-free products has increased significantly, as has appetite for new products. As a result, Andriani’s products are no longer solely aimed at people with food allergies, but at everyone.
“Gluten-free pasta offers an alternative to conventional pasta that provides other attractive characteristics and benefits. For example, you can have all the nutritional benefits of lentils in a traditional pasta shape,” says Filippo Gavarini, Green Energy Specialist at Andriani. Lentils are also a good source of plant-based protein – an advantage for those looking for a more sustainable diet.
Playing in a wider market enables growth but also means greater competition. Optimization and efficiency are therefore essential to maintain high product quality at a competitive price. The great challenge is to combine this with a high degree of flexibility. Diversity is at the core of Andriani’s operations: 15 different plant species, including cereals, pulses, vegetables, and superfoods, are transformed into a wide range of different pasta products for a variety of major brands, each with its own requirements, as well as for Andriani’s own brand, Felicia.
The collaboration with Bühler began in 2010 with a pasta plant for maize and rice, but Andriani was soon looking into other possibilities. In 2016, the companies co-designed Andriani’s multigrain mill. It is a true multi-talent and unique in Italy, processing buckwheat, brown rice, quinoa, corn, amaranth, lentils, peas, chickpeas, mung beans, and more. It has to be able to handle quick changes between raw materials that vary greatly in terms of granulometry, color, and other characteristics, making it a unique combination of flexibility with efficiency.
“For us, the multigrain mill is the beating heart of the company,” explains Gavarini. Here the grains are sorted, processed, and mixed. Equipped entirely with Bühler solutions, including a new Bühler Diorit four-roller mill, flexibility, efficiency, and waste reduction all come to the fore here. The sequence of changes is planned carefully according to the color of the raw material being processed – from white to yellow corn, chickpeas to buckwheat. This maintains the quality of the product while reducing waste.
We are fortunate in having a business partner like Bühler. It is through the exchange of knowledge from our ecosystems that ideas take shape and together we prepare for the future.
Michele Andriani,
Founder and CEO at Andriani
The mill is special in another way, too because it is here that the extra process step occurs that enables Andriani to create gluten-free pasta. Gluten is the glue that enables pasta to retain its shape. Without gluten, the chemical composition of the starch has to be changed by adding pressure and heat to gelatinize it. In Bühler’s extruder the raw materials are processed into pellets that are then dried and reprocessed to make flour. “We did a lot of experimentation with Bühler to get this gluten-free process right. We tested different recipes, pressure, and heat,” says Gavarini.
Energy is a major topic throughout the plant, including in the pasta lines themselves. Andriani has installed seven Bühler pasta lines, capable of producing over 20 different shapes of pasta and ensuring food safety, quality, and efficiency. The Ecothermatik line, for example, recycles heat, and therefore uses 40 percent less thermal energy. Reducing energy consumption and reusing energy are important first steps. To meet its remaining demand, Andriani adopts renewable sources wherever possible. For example, a photovoltaic system covers all the roofs of the facility, producing 10 percent of the electric energy used annually. A combined cooling, heat, and power trigeneration system produces 45 percent of the electric energy, 25 percent of the superheated energy, and about 50 percent of the cooling energy needed for their production processes. This allows them to save some 20 percent of primary energy. In addition, together with Bühler they have installed a Vyncke biomass boiler.
“Our aim is that this will replace the gas boilers that we currently use for the production of thermal energy,” says Gavarini. The biomass boiler is also the link between optimizing energy inputs to reduce the carbon footprint and optimizing the use of raw materials through circular economy practices because it is fueled by a byproduct from the mill. Discarded hulls of buckwheat are mixed with cuttings from pruned olive trees and other wood by-products from the local agricultural sector, giving new life to what was previously considered waste. Key to making this work is identifying the optimal use for each side stream. “Wherever possible we upcycle side streams and waste streams so that they gain value in both a nutritional and economic sense,” says Gavarini. It is only the lignocellulosic parts of the raw materials – those that are not edible or have no nutritional value – that are used for energy recovery.
Wherever possible we upcycle side streams and waste streams so that they gain value in both a nutritional and economic sense.
Filippo Gavarini,
Green Energy Specialist at Andriani
Other side streams that are richer in nutrients or better tasting are reused as food. For example, in one of their most recent projects, residues from pasta production are made into high-quality, nutritious, gluten-free pet food on a Bühler extruder. “The resulting product is loved both by our four-legged friends and their owners,” says Gavarini.
It is not just the use of energy, but also water that Andriani optimizes. The water used to clean the dye plates in the pasta plant is filtered and used to grow spirulina in an on-site production facility run by the company’s subsidiary ApuliaKundi. The dark green algae is full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and protein, and is used to make supplements, healthy snacks, and cosmetics.
At Andriani, in a perfect example of closing the circle, spirulina is also used as a valuable ingredient in their pasta. The sustainability benefits do not end there: the algae also captures about 1.8 kilograms of CO2 from the atmosphere per kilogram of spirulina produced. Optimizing the use of water is also important in a region that is prone to drought. This shows that Andriani’s idea of sustainability is not just about their own processes but about their entire ecosystem. It combines food traceability and safety, promotion of the local economy, and wellbeing of people, all of which are linked with respect for biodiversity and responsible agriculture. For this reason, Andriani set up a subsidiary, Terre Bradaniche, to develop a sustainable Italian supply chain for pulse production and help local farmers optimize their crops and implement sustainable criteria.
“Our agronomists work directly with the farmers to ensure that the raw materials we receive meet our exact requirements,” explains Gavarini. Here, the raw material is pre-cleaned, weighed, and checked before it is sent to the multigrain mill. The cleaner machine, optical sorter, destoner, and scales are all from Bühler.
The partnership with Bühler also enables Andriani to collect primary data and track all impacts, all the way back to the field. By working with Bühler’s partner xFarm, Andriani can trace, monitor, and analyze data relating to the crops and help the farmers to increase yields and efficiency.
The next step, which they are already working on with Bühler’s Environmental Impact Services, is to put all inputs from the crop to the factory output into one system so that they can calculate the impact of their products and identify key environmental footprint reduction levers. This requires full digitalization – a big challenge, but one that they see as essential, as it will enable even greater transparency and enhanced, fact-based decision-making, and increase operational efficiency while significantly lowering the overall environmental footprint.
As a result of all these efforts, Andriani is now close to being carbon neutral within its own boundaries, Scopes 1 and 2. But its ultimate aim is far wider. Circular economy and sustainability are now key drivers of Andriani’s business, not just because these make the company more efficient and enable it to use resources in the optimum way, but also because they help them meet changing demands and position themselves in the market.
What brought us together was Andriani’s vision to transform any side stream or waste stream from its pasta production into something valuable and healthy for people and the planet.
Giulia Manzolini,
Team Manager for Environmental Quantification at Bühler
“Every year, we feel more and more pull and push from both sides of our value chain for the thoughtful implementation of sustainability practices in our business and the products we sell,” explains Michele Andriani. “Our customers and our suppliers increasingly want to know what our impact is on the planet and on people.”
Even more impressively, Andriani has built all of this while they grew, winning in their markets at the same time as creating and expanding their sustainable model through their value chain. “Sustainability is not just a set of goals, but a way of acting and doing business. We learn from people who choose our products, and that is why we want change, inspiring the entire value chain towards goodwill and excellence,” says Michele Andriani.
“We are fortunate in having a business partner like Bühler, with whom we share the same values. It is precisely through the exchange of knowledge from our two ecosystems that ideas take shape and together we prepare for the future.”
Who: Andriani S.p.A.
Where: Gravina in Puglia, Italy
When: Founded in 2009.
What: Andriani produces 40,000 tonnes of pasta a year.
Customers: The company serves customers in over 50 countries.
Bühler: Andriani uses a range of Bühler solutions, including receiving, cleaning, pearling, multigrain milling, extrusion, and mixing. It has Polymatik presses for gluten-free applications, Ecothermatik dryers for long goods and C-Line dryers for short goods. It works closely with Bühler’s Environmental Impact Services.
Gupfenstrasse 5
Uzwil
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Switzerland
