In the heart of the Parma food valley, you find the company Terre Ducali, a landmark in the category of high-end Italian cured meats. Producing typical cured meats: Fiocco Ham, Culatta Emilia, Coppa di Parma PGI, as well as specialties such as Pancetta with black pepper and Cured Jowl (Guanciale), up to the complete range of typical Parma salamis including Salame Felino IGP and Strolghino, the latter, a specialty that Terre Ducali launched as first and through which it is still today market leader.
When introducing the excellence of Parma's artisan and genuine culture to the whole world, one needs to balance tradition and innovation by combining the ancient art of making Italian salami with new technologies and consumer needs. The challenge for companies in the food industry is to design products flexible and individual within the technological limitations. For this, Terre Ducali has invested in a MeatMaster™ II.
Speaking with plant manager and co-owner, Giorgio Gherri, he explains: “The MeatMaster let us have products that live up to tradition while being consistent and true to the value we want to achieve. We can now measure fat very accurately and thereby also know the moisture content” He explains how knowing these parameters helps them create a consistent product and automate some processes while still focusing on traditions and the craft carried down through generations in the food valley of Parma.
Giorgio explains “Consumers need to find a product as uniform as possible all year round across all types of products. A good example is our Felino salami, an IGP product from our province, hand-tired, stuffed in a natural casting, and only produced with the ingredients salt, sugar, pepper, and nitrite nitrate. To achieve uniformity in the other components and make a salami Felino with a type of flavor that customers get used to, it is a huge help with MeatMaster to control fat and lean. So, the MeatMaster allows me to make my own Felino salami. It helps me create a uniform product, and it is a solution that is easy to use for everybody.” He says and concludes “Using MeatMaster we have further on been able to optimize the drying time of our salami production, which has resulted in a reduction of our energy costs and thereby supported our sustainability policy. In this way, the MeatMaster has been able to help us not only with creating a consistent product but also bringing down the cost of production.”
