Panzani Solutions has opened a dedicated Durum Lab designed to help food manufacturers better understand how durum wheat ingredients perform in real-world applications.

By combining advanced raw material analysis with application testing, the facility aims to accelerate product development, improve formulation accuracy and provide evidence-based technical recommendations across bakery, coatings, pasta and other food categories.

The Durum Lab is a new analytical and application centre dedicated to unlocking the full potential of durum wheat ingredients for food manufacturers.

Located in Gennevilliers, France, the laboratory strengthens the company’s existing Durum Center and represents a strategic investment by the Panzani Group to provide manufacturers with more precise technical support as they develop products in increasingly demanding markets.

Rather than focusing solely on ingredient specification, the facility is designed to answer a question facing many food manufacturers: how will a specific durum wheat ingredient actually perform in the finished product?

Turning ingredient data into manufacturing insight

Natural variation between wheat harvests means ingredient performance can fluctuate, creating challenges for manufacturers seeking consistent product quality, processing efficiency and shelf life.

The Durum Lab has been established to bridge that gap by combining detailed analysis of raw materials with application testing that measures how ingredients behave in finished food products.

According to Panzani Solutions, the objective is to create a “common scientific language” with customers, enabling technical recommendations to be supported by objective data rather than assumptions.

This approach is intended to speed up product development while allowing solutions to be tailored to individual manufacturing processes and formulations.

Two areas of expertise

The laboratory’s work is divided into two complementary areas.

The first focuses on characterising durum wheat and flour, using specialist analytical equipment including a Chopin alveograph and Inframatic infrared spectrometer to assess the functional properties of raw materials before they enter production.

The second evaluates how those ingredients perform within finished food applications.

Using a suite of analytical equipment — including texture analysers, viscometers, Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA), Bostwick consistometers, Aw meters for water activity and pH meters — the laboratory measures characteristics including texture, viscosity, stability and shelf life.

For manufacturers, this provides quantitative evidence of how ingredients influence finished products, helping reduce development risk and improve formulation accuracy.

Supporting multiple food sectors

The facility has been designed to support a broad range of food applications, including bakery, pastry and viennoiserie, coatings and breaded products, biscuits and cakes, pasta and cereal-based foods.

In bakery applications, for example, texture analysis enables researchers to monitor how softness and firmness change over time, helping optimise improvers and ingredient systems.

For biscuits, cakes and pasta, monitoring water activity provides valuable information for maintaining product stability, consistency and shelf life.

Faster development and cleaner formulations

The investment also supports Panzani Solutions’ work on natural and clean-label ingredient development.

By generating detailed performance data earlier in the development process, the company expects to respond more quickly to customer projects while reducing uncertainty during formulation.

Clémence Toniutti, head of the Durum Center, said: “Thanks to the Durum Lab, we can mobilise the most relevant tools for each specific challenge, precisely characterise raw materials, and refine our technical recommendations to develop solutions tailored to each application.”

What this means for manufacturers

For food manufacturers, the significance of the Durum Lab extends beyond another R&D facility. It reflects a broader shift towards data-led ingredient development, where suppliers are expected to provide measurable evidence of functionality rather than simply supplying ingredients.

As manufacturers face increasing pressure to reduce reformulation cycles, improve consistency despite raw material variability and support clean-label innovation, access to application-specific performance data is becoming a competitive advantage.

With almost 50 years of experience in developing ingredients from 100% French durum wheat, Panzani Solutions is positioning the Durum Lab as a resource that enables manufacturers to make formulation decisions with greater confidence, backed by objective scientific analysis rather than trial and error.