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- Cereals, thanks to their protein richness, have always played a major role in diet.

- Among the more widely spread ones, we can find wheat that, thanks to the easiness to turn it into bread, is the basic element in the making of pasta, bread and desserts.

- In their production, the use of transgenic and manipulated grains is now a habit but there are different thinking schools about that.

- About 50% of the Italian production of biological cereals is cultivated in Sicilia and Sardinia,

- two regions that have always been careful about the principles of nature and which, along the years, became true biological islands.

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- Sowed in November and collected at the end of spring, wheat, collected inside the ear has a great quantity of nutritious values.

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- Unlike fodder that is used to feed animals, this one dedicated to make bread is collected once it is fully mature and only transformed in that moment.

- Work starts in June, at the time when, thanks to the heat, wheat got the well known yellow color.

- The mechanical harvesters work 12 hours a day, shelling, one after the other, the ears of every field.

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- From the grain, we get products such as semolina and flour and by-products such as bran and stems.

- For transforming, the farmer can turn to modern mills with a high technology, as much as to old mills that still stone grind.

- If during those years these last ones became true museums, the companies that still do biological agriculture are continuously looking for structures to revive.

- In fact, the demands of this field perfectly combine with crafts mills, where a smaller quantity of worked wheat corresponds to a better quality of finished products.

- To grind with the traditional stone wheels, called millstones, give semolina a very special dark color, as a small quantity of pulverized bran unites the worked product.

- Biological farming is a different type of farming, because it did not underwent chemical treatments during maturation, harvesting and preservation.

- Once that all the controls have been done, we start working, that is to say pre-cleaning, cleaning, wetting and then grinding,

- and a size grading is done on the basis of the customer’s demand, for the type of product they want.

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- We will now go further into this report by following the grinding process in a modern mill.

- The company is compelled to communicate to the inspectors of control bodies the beginning of their work at least 5 days earlier.

- The moment wheat is accepted, besides the control of the documents that prove the biological origin, physio-chemical analyses are done within the lab of the mill.

- In our company we gave ourselves limitations to accept biological wheat, if we don’t answer those limitations, wheat is naturally refused.

- Besides the physic-chemical analyses that are done by an external body,

- we also make analyses that can be of help in pasta production and they determine the ashes, the humidity, the proteins,

- and in particular the quality of gluten that is the main characteristic of wheat for pasta production.

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- In a middle sized mill, we don't only work biological wheat,

- and to avoid contaminations we must do a careful cleaning as much of the tank where it will remain, as of the equipment where it will be transformed.

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- Once it has been accepted, wheat is poured in the tank.

- In this space, called hopper, it remains as little as possible before it is moved to stocking and mixing silos.

- The passing between the different phases is possible thanks to drafts.

- In fact, the mill is in an upright position to allow a natural descent of wheat in the equipment that is located one floor below.

- This way, besides a saving in terms of time, wheat is not touch by anything but air.

- We start work after a careful cleaning and a hygienization of all the equipment that concerns grinding and cleaning.

- I want to point out at the first hour of grinding, the semolina that comes out from this cycle is completely put aside and then is used as conventional hard wheat semolina.

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- A vibrating separator submits wheat to a first cleaning, where grain is freed from foreign bodies with an average and thin grade.

- 2 separators eliminate and push aside from the mass of wheat the foreign vegetable grains and the small stones.

- After this very important cleaning phase, wheat is moistened trough an electronical equipment of water dosing and then of an intensive moistening system.

- Then it is sent to silos where it remains during about 10 hours.

- The phase during which we grind and sieve is that of production. Here we extract semolina, flours and brans.

- The product, going through different sieving, is split according to size grading and sent, according to each case, to rolling mills or equipments for semolina.

- Those former ones select the semolina and sent those that are still covered with bran particles to other rolling mills where they will be skinned from the undesired part.

- The inspectors check and verbalize the entire transformation line.

- Inspections can take place during all the phases of production: from the moment when the company announces the beginning of works to the obtaining of the final product.

- During this phase 4 samples of biological semolina are taken, that are immediately analyzed by credited labs.

- The confirmation of substances that are not admitted may imply the immediate suspending of the biological certification and a successive counter-analysis.

- If the presence of non admitted substances is confirmed, the operator has sanctions with different grades, based on the importance of the nonconformity,

- that may lead to a suspending of the certification, from 1 to 12 months, or even the collection of the system of control with a communication to the various public bodies,

- that is to say to the Ministry, the regions and to the other control bodies, in order to avoid that the operator who isn’t considered as very trustful immediately gets in the system.

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- Once work is over, the semolina arrives in tanks.

- To not have sanitary risks, this type of change is automatic, it does not allow any contact between the finished product and the operators.

- Once full, the tanks are ready to take the semolina to the next transforming equipment, for pasta, bread production and so on.

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