Italy is renowned for its rich culture of delicious food and wines and every dish can be traced back to the unique cuisine of 20 different regions. It is even said that you can experience more dishes travelling from the north to the south of Italy than the whole continent. Certainly, Italian cooking may vary greatly between regions and according to seasonal availability, but one aspect remains constant and that is the joy of eating shared by Italians and their families.

Italian food conjures up an image of colourful products, fresh ingredients and intense flavours throughout all the regions. Today, many Italian manufacturers in Italy of both retail and ingredient products have recognised the benefit of kosher certification and proudly display the KLBD logo as a mark of quality to satisfy discerning consumers all over the world.

One such enterprise is Coppola Foods, a family owned company founded in 1908 which manufactures and distributes an innovative range of authentic Italian foods. All the products are free from any preservatives, additives or colourings and include tomatoes, tomato sauces, pesto, oil, vinegar, rice, polenta and couscous. Maria Suleymanova praised the benefit of KLBD certification: ‘We are honoured to work with KLBD. KLBD has the worldwide reputation for its stringent and high quality assessment criteria, and we are delighted that most of our products now carry the sign of KLBD. KLBD certification has opened new opportunities to market our products and grow the production volume. We strive to make good food better and KLBD is certainly an extra quality mark we are happy to offer to our customers’.

As well as being connoisseurs of food and wine, Italians enjoy their soft drinks too. In the highly competitive world of drinks and beverages, Cedral Tassoni is also KLBD certified and enjoys a reputation second to none for producing fantastic flavoured citrus drinks in eye catching designed bottles. The company was founded in 1793 in Salo and attributes its renowned quality to being both forward thinking and having a controlled supply chain. It is one of the few manufacturers that directly produces its own aromas and monitors the fruit selection in the preparation of flavourings right up to bottling the finished product.

Much has also been written about Italian tomatoes and how they symbolise the essence of Italian cuisine. La Doria prides itself on the authenticity and high quality of its delicious range of tomato, fruit juice and pulse products and is KLBD certified. Only the finest, home grown Italian tomatoes are used to produce the peeled, chopped and cherry tomatoes in La Doria’s appetising range. The fruit juices and pulse range are just as flavoursome and packed according to natural conservation methods to leave the taste and nutrition intact.

Another Italian company signed up to KLBD is Bioitalia Distribuzione. Bioitalia acts a wholesale distributor of Italian grocery and related products to 40 countries and is committed to producing a wide range of high quality organic foods. As well as being environmentally friendly, the range has also been developed to be widely affordable and not for the privileged few.  Marianna De Pasquale of Bioitalia commented, ‘The kosher certification is an important point of difference and advantage for Bioitalia versus competitor brands. As a matter of fact our products are sold mainly abroad including Canada, USA, Russia and Australia where big Jewish communities live. Moreover, we believe this certification is followed also by other communities as a guarantee for safety and quality products. On the contrary, here in Italy, the importance and the awareness of this certification is still growing’.

Naturally, the technique to perfecting Italian cuisine starts with using good quality ingredients and having the best advances in food technology.  Indena is the world’s leading company in the identification, development and production of active ingredients derived from medicinal plants and is KLBD certified.  Advanced research undertaken by Indena continues to be a crucial element for serving customers in the pharmaceutical, health foods and personal care industries.

It was a joint venture between two leading Italian companies in grape production and sugar manufacturing which led to the formation of KLBD certified Naturalia Ingredients in 2009.  This successful collaboration resulted in the creation of a delicious sweetener based on an internationally patented process involving the extraction of sugars directly from grapes. The sweetener combines a unique blend of nature and technology, tradition and innovation.

KLBD certified Sensient Food Colours, based in Cavriago, in the province of Reggio Emilia, is part of Sensient Technologies Corporation. It is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of natural and synthetic colour solutions for the food and beverage, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and industrial markets. Its experience over 100 years has ensured that new and visually exciting products are constantly being brought to the market.

Turning to the food and pharma sector, Huntsman’s high purity titanium dioxide grades have been established for many decades and satisfy the KLBD standards for certification. Their specialised production technique enables them to present lollipops, chewing gum and icing in a dazzling white, as well as other fresh colours.  Based in Torino, the company was previously known as Rockwood Italia S.p.A..

This article highlights just some of the thriving food and ingredient companies in Italy and the benefits brought by KLBD certification.  In a climate of economic uncertainty, this is one sector guaranteed to go from strength to strength.

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About Coppola Foods

Coppola Foods is an innovative food company committed to making good food better.

We offer a comprehensive range of premium quality, tasty, nutritious and sustainable food products together with an excellent level of service and attentive solutions to fulfil the needs of customers and markets.

Our range of authentic Italian food products are cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet. This includes tomatoes, legumes, vegetable products, sauces, condiments and grain products.

We are a fourth-generation family business with a long heritage in the production and marketing of food products, dating back to 1903 in Salerno, in Southern Italy.