The Tomato dynasty

The Tomato dynasty
Magazine: September 2007

Giovanni Mutti was founder of the family who runs the preserves business of the same name, fi rmly rooted in the heart of Food Valley.
In 1899 Giovanni had the intuition to alternate the cultivation system, a method still widely used. In 1951 Mutti marked his success with an important innovation which would revolutionise the preserves industry:
it launched concentrated tomato paste packed in an aluminium tube.
Another leading innovation came in 1971 when the company introduced fi nely chopped tomato pulp, obtained with a particular procedure which included many DIY phases, as Francesco Mutti reveals: «In that period the factory included a workshop, where the equipment need for production was built, and a joinery where wooden boxes were made in the summer for collecting the hand picked tomatoes, and was used in the winter to fi x the broken ones».

A family partnership

This preserves company in 1999 was the fi rst to mark its products “Produzione Integrata Certifi cata” certifying that international regulations have been met, and that the whole production line has passed tests, from collection through to distribution.
Since 2001 the “Non OGM” logo sits proudly on its packaging: to be eligible for this, its farming methods have been subjected to inspections and its plants, fresh tomatoes and end product have been analysed and tested by external laboratories. Sensitive to current issues the company has reduced its water consumption year after year thanks to a purifi cation plant, despite the fact that its production has increased fourfold in the last 12 years.
Vital for ensuring quality, Mutti obtains its raw material from the Paduan Plain since fresh tomatoes have to be processed within three hours from being picked.
Market leader in single, double and triple tomato concentrates and chopped tomato pulp, the company also produces pureed tomatoes, tinned tomatoes, baby tomatoes, Le Verdurine sauce, tomato sauce for pizza, tomato ketchup and, recently, tomato vinegar which has been a huge success abroad. After two years of research Mutti has recently presented the Linea Sughi, consisting of different tomato sauces: “with basil’’, “all’arrabbiata”, “with olives” and “with meat”.