ADM Buys Healthy Pasta Maker Caterina Foods

03 Oct 2016 --- Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has purchased the US healthy pasta maker Caterina Foods, underscoring its commitment to expanding its speciality food business. Caterina, based in Lake Bluff, Illinois, is a private label business which manufactures gluten-free and high-protein pastas. 

The pastas are made in various shapes and sizes from flours made with corn, lentils, peas, rice and quinoa along with other grains and legumes.

Pasta shapes made by Caterina include spaghetti, elbow, fusilli, lasagne and radiator. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.

The purchase of Caterina, which has around 60 employees, comes as health-conscious consumers increasingly seek out gluten-free and other 
non-wheat pastas.

Caterina is a toll processor for ADM's Harvest Innovations company, the non-GMO and gluten free company it acquired a majority stake in 
earlier this year.

Vince Macciocchi, President of ADM's Wild Flavors and Speciality Ingredients business, said that Caterina "will be a key part of our growth plans" for Harvest Innovations company.

He added: The addition of the Caterina business gives us yet another way in which to meet the needs of health-conscious consumers – in this case expanding our ability to produce specialty pastas from legumes and grains other than wheat.”

“Since we purchased a controlling stake in Harvest Innovations, we have continued to see increased demand for gluten-free and other non-wheat pasta.”

“Together, Harvest and Caterina will allow us to streamline our operations while expanding our capabilities in this growth area.” 

“We are looking forward to finding new ways to expand and advance the Harvest and Caterina businesses, and working with customers across the country to meet their ingredient needs for health-conscious consumers.”

The Chicago-based food processing giant is increasingly looking to position itself to better meet the demands of consumers demanding healthier foods.

In 2014, ADM announced its biggest acquisition ever, after it agreed to buy Swiss food-ingredients maker Wild Flavors GmbH for $3 billion to protect itself from volatile crop prices.

The acquisition moved ADM further into the business of designing ingredients for products like protein drinks and nut bars.

ADM’s ingredients business generates around $2.5bn in annual sales and is largely geared around its US food products.

By John Reynolds