Established in 1978, CDS was amongst the first companies in the world to manufacture industrial couscous by means of a fully automatic process. In 1996, CDS complemented its range of couscous by adding the manufacture of pasta, acquiring four fully automatic production lines, whereby all parameters are constantly measured. The process is driven by a system of automatic machinery, ensuring fully controlled operation from receipt of the raw material right through the various stages of the manufacturing process.

Transported pneumatically, the semolina is weighed and sifted through a stack of sieves of different meshes in order to remove all impurities.

The first step of the pasta manufacturing process is kneading, which consists in hydrating the semolina progressively in a kneading machine or a vacuum mixer.

The dough is extruded through specific forms of various sizes, hung out on rods and then cut at both ends.

The pasta is dried for around five and a half hours, alternating between seven zones, with temperature and humidity regulated differently in every zone according to the recipe.

The dried pasta is cooled to ambient temperature through a cooler and is then placed in the storage area.

The pasta is then removed from the rods, cut and transported via a bucket chain to the packaging area.

For short pasta, the mixing stage is identical to that of the long goods, except that after going through the forms, the pasta is cut and shaken to prevent any pieces from sticking together.

The pasta is transported via a bucket conveyer to the three-zone drier, where it stays for about three hours depending on the recipe.

The pasta is cooled, stored in silos and then sent to the packaging machinery.

The pasta is weighed and put into bags, which are prepared progressively.

After the packets have had the date printed on them, been weighed automatically and gone through a metal detector, they are stacked and plastic-wrapped or placed in cardboard boxes.

The laboratory carries out quality control of the raw material, in particular the semolina (measuring grain size, wheat content, ash content, gluten content etc.), following the culinary and organoleptic quality of the PFs, pasta and couscous.