KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As struggling consumers turn to casseroles, soup, pasta salad and good old macaroni and cheese to stretch their food dollars, the nation’s pasta makers are returning to a rolling boil after many years of being overshadowed by the low-carbohydrate fad. Sales of pasta products in the U.S. — including frozen and refrigerated pasta, canned pasta, soup mixes and prepared dinners — rose 5 percent last year to $6.4 billion, according to Kansas City-based American Italian Pasta Co., the nation’s largest manufacturer of dry pasta.
Peter Smith, chief executive of Harrisburg, Pa.-based New World Pasta, which makes Ronzoni, American Beauty and Creamette, said he was amazed that commodity-price hikes last year didn’t dampen pasta sales the way they did sales of other consumer goods. The Associated Press; AP photo
