Daniele Inc. named among most innovative industrial companies

DANIELE INC.'S high-pressure food processing machine - aiding the company's efforts to improve shelf-life and food safety - earned the gourmet meat-maker a spot at No. 6 on Manufacturing.net's list of the Most Innovative Industrial Companies for 2013. / COURTESY DANIELE INC.
DANIELE INC.'S high-pressure food processing machine - aiding the company's efforts to improve shelf-life and food safety - earned the gourmet meat-maker a spot at No. 6 on Manufacturing.net's list of the Most Innovative Industrial Companies for 2013. / COURTESY DANIELE INC.

BURRILLVILLE – Gourmet charcuterie Daniele Inc. has earned a place at No. 6 on Manufacturing.net’s list of the Most Innovative Industrial Companies for 2013.

This year, Manufacturing.net selected the most innovative companies from among those covered by Manufacturing.net and its sister publications during 2013. Daniele’s expansion of its processing facility in Pascoag and its advanced food-preserving technology were first reported in an article by Manufacturing.net affiliate Food Manufacturing last May.

Daniele’s specialty pork comes from hogs raised on New England family farms, and the Dukcevich family that owns the company has been selling their prosciutto, sopressata, salame, pancetta and other gourmet meats for three generations, since Vlado Dukcevich brought his parents’ business to Rhode Island from northern Italy in the 1970s.

After Vlado’s sons Stefano and Davide took over the operation of the company, the brothers opened a third processing facility in 2004. Eight years later, the company invested in high-pressure processing technology to extend the shelf-life of their products and ensure food safety, Food Manufacturing said.

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After processing and packaging, food products are loaded into small chambers which are then submerged within the high-pressure processor and pressurized. The pressure kills any pathogens inside the package without changing the nature of the product the way typical heat pasteurization might, according to the company. Daniele’s food safety director, Michael DeCesare, called the machine “one of the most sophisticated ways to help reduce the chances of contamination on finished product.”

Going forward, Daniele Inc. expects to continue growing, with an expansion underway to extend the company’s salami-processing operations, according to Food Manufacturing.

Last month, Daniele’s Uncured Sopressata Veneta, Del Duca Vlado’s Riserva Prosciutto and Mortadella with Pistachios were selected as finalists in the 2014 National Good Food Awards following a blind taste test competition.

Daniele was the only Rhode Island food company to be named a 2014 Good Food Awards finalist, and the first Rhode Island company to receive that recognition since the awards began in 2011.

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