Barilla is the Italian food company founded in Parma in 1877 and strongly associated with boxed spaghetti.
Pietro Barilla Sr. began the business as a bakery shop in Parma. The family company expanded into pasta production, opening a factory in 1910. By the middle of the 20th century, Barilla had stopped making bread and focused entirely on pasta.
Barilla helped popularize packaged pasta through industrial production, broad distribution, and cardboard packaging. That packaging history explains why the brand is especially recognizable in supermarkets, where its blue boxes have become closely associated with dried spaghetti and other pasta shapes.
The company is often confused with Buitoni, Rummo, and De Cecco, all of which are major Italian pasta brands. Barilla is broader than a spaghetti maker: its portfolio includes numerous pasta shapes, sauces, bakery products, and other food brands. Its headquarters remain in Parma, the city where the company began.