The pasta industry in Italy: how the new consumer's behaviour is affecting its production

Abstract

Food habits have changed a lot over time leading to the emergence of new trends in the food industry. In order to respond to the new consumer’s demand, the pasta industry has started to differentiate its products, by offering healthy-related food made with non-traditional raw materials. The elaboration is divided in five chapters: the first ones deal with how the evolution in the Italian consumption has always been strongly related to the economic condition and how digitalization is nowadays changing people’s lifestyles. Mainly younger generations, being more informed, are more and more focused on healthy and environmental issues, which have led to a shift in terms of food habits. In the pasta sector, new products have been launched by using non-conventional ingredients to render pasta healthier and suitable for any request. The Italian pasta industry is then considered looking at its development in the last years and how it plays a key role at the international level. The empirical part lies in the fifth chapter, in which food habits and buying behaviour of consumers are analysed through a questionnaire. Its main topics concern their usual consumption of pasta and the key elements they expect to find in a package of pasta. Further information was asked about a specific pasta brand in order to underline the fact that the evolution in the range of products offered by Pasta Sgambaro has been done to be in line with and satisfy the new requests.