Rice husk is unloaded into the complex tank and is driven into the boiler through chain conveyors and elevators.

The rice husk combustion heats the water at 150°C under a 7-bar-pressure. The superheated waters returns in 140°C.

Purification of all exhaust gases before being released into the atmosphere are carried out from a filter unit.

The ash is collected and palletized.

Durum wheat grains are delivered, applying the following steps:

- Loaded trucks with durum wheat grains arrive on the weighbridge, next to the quality control laboratory and are weighed upon arrival. 

- Sample is taken from selected points of the load using a telescopic control arm.

- Load delivery details are recorded, and necessary raw material analyses are carried out on the spot.

- Durum wheat grains are cleared for unloading to the durum wheat processing mill reservoir, upon meeting requirements. If no requirements are met, load is rejected.

If you’re cooking your food properly on your barbeque, you’re getting delightful results every time. However, all too frequently, people are falling victims to very common barbeque myths. It’s not because we’re gullible or stupid in any way. Many barbeque myths are so well known and so wide spread that they are more frequently passed on as truth than they are as the myths that they truly are.

For example, many people love to try to get perfect grill lines on their barbequed foods. Either straight lines, or the more fancy criss-crossed ones are often accepted as a sure sign of the expert barbeque chef. What this involves is flipping your meat, so that the lines are on the both sides. However, many people don’t ever get to achieve this art form because they have fallen victim to one of the main barbeque myths. They believe that flipping or poking your grilled food makes it tough – this is a myth. In fact, flipping your meat not only creates great grill lines, but it also makes certain that you cook more evenly. While you read up on the swath of information available for providing tips and tricks for the best results on your barbeque, make sure that your source is reliable. While some of this information is very helpful, much of it can be exaggerated or based on what the author “thinks” rather than what is actually known.

The belief that poking or flipping your food will let all of the juices out and make it tough would only work if your food was shaped exactly like a balloon – which it isn’t. Meat is made up of hundreds of small cells, each filled with its own moisture and juices. Should you poke your meat with a fork while it’s on the grill, you may pop one or two cells, but it won’t let all of the juices out…only that of the cells you’ve punctured. Certainly, if you repeatedly stab and puncture your meat, many of the cells will be broken, and you’ll lose a great deal of your juices, but other than in a horror movie, there really isn’t any reason to treat your meat that way.

Similarly, flipping your meat doesn’t let a great deal of the juices out either. After all, flipping doesn’t puncture any of the cells, so as long as you don’t flip it and smack it hard, then you won’t lose much by the way of juices at all. Be gentle…it’s already dead!

The problem with flipping your meat on the grill lies when cooks use their spatulas and other tools to squish the meat after it has been flipped, often trying to squeeze out the grease. By flattening the cells in the meat, much of the moisture and juices are pushed out, leaving the meat dry.

So flip those burgers and poke that steak! Get those grill lines just the way you want them. Your food will always be good and juicy, just like the pros do it.

After the delivery process, durum wheat grains are precleaned and stored, applying the following steps:

- Durum wheat grains pass through the durum wheat processing mill complex, where they are precleaned to remove most of the impurities using a magnet which retains any metal shavings, a separator which sifts straws, stones and metal objects and an aspirator which removes any beard and dust

- Durum wheat grains are stored in silos under adequate ventilation conditions. 

After the precleaning and storage process, durum wheat grains are cleaned, applying the following steps:

- Durum wheat grains pass again through the durum wheat processing mill complex, where they are weighed and cleaned to further minimize impurities thanks to: additional magnets, additional separators, additional aspirators, stone separators removing the remaining stones from the wheat, optical sorters removing grains of other cereal and cylindrical sorters removing broken durum wheat grains.

After the cleaning process, durum wheat grains are dampened and decorticated, applying the following steps:

- Durum wheat grains are moisturized with a proportionate amount of water by dampeners in order to become properly prepared for decortication. 

- Durum wheat grains are decorticated by pairs of decorticating machines which rub the outer layers of the grains, removing the decortication-process bran. This part of bran is unfit for human consumption and becomes as a result a product for animal feed.

After the dampening and decortication process, durum wheat decorticated grains are milled, applying the following steps: 

- Durum wheat decorticated grains are weighed and milled thanks to: roller mill machines which crush the grains creating numerous granules of various sizes, plansifter sieves and semolina purifiers which sort the granules based on their size, aspiration systems which forward the granules according to their size to different roller machines to be crushed further and to different plansifter sieves and semolina purifiers to be sorted further. The process is repeated until all granules obtain suitable size for pasta production.

After the milling process, grains are separated into semolina and milling-process-bran, applying the following steps: 

- Semolina and milling-process-bran are weighed separately inside the durum wheat processing mill complex.

- Semolina and milling-process-bran are transferred to the respective storage silos located inside the pasta production plant, close to the pasta production lines. Milling-process-bran is used to produce whole wheat pasta. 

The moulds have a rectangular cross-section for long pasta and a round cross-section for short. The moulds have numerous circular holes uniformly fabricated for the attachment of shapers. Apart from the moulds, there arespecial devices for cutting “penne” shaped pasta that areused in short pasta production lines.

Shapers, like moulds, have also holes that define the final design of the pasta. The holes of shapers are either made of bronze or Teflon. Bronze gives the final pasta roughness and clean yellow colour, while Teflon gives smoothness and bright yellow colour.

The moulds have a rectangular cross-section for long pasta and a round cross-section for short. The moulds have numerous circular holes uniformly fabricated for the attachment of shapers. Apart from the moulds, there arespecial devices for cutting “penne” shaped pasta that areused in short pasta

production lines.

Shapers, like moulds, have also holes that define the final design of the pasta. The holes of shapers are either made of bronze or Teflon. Bronze gives the final pasta roughness and clean yellow colour, while Teflon gives smoothness and bright yellow colour.

When moulds are replaced, they are thoroughly cleaned to maintain the hygiene standards. They are initially transported in a specially designed area, the mould washing and storage area. There, they are placed in mould washing machines and are washed. After washing and drying, they are kept in shelving units, where they are stored until next use. Before use, they are also cleaned and washed.

After the storage of semi-finished products process, semolina is mixed, kneaded and shaped, applying the following steps: 

- Semolina is added through a volumetric feeder and reverse osmosis filtered water enters through a regulating valve from the water supply network.

- Semolina is uniformly mixed with suitable amount of water in a centrifugal single-axis mixer. 

- The mixture is kneaded in a double-axis kneader until transformed into dough.

- The dough is forwarded to the vacuum kneader, allowing the elimination of air from the dough.

- The dough is forwarded to the molds through a compression screw. 

- The dough reaches the molds and is initially dispensed in the molds’ filters for filtration and finally in the molds’ shapers for final shaping. 

Spreading 

After the shaping process, the dough has turned into multiple strains of pasta. These strains are passed through a hot ventilation system, so they do not stick together and are spread onto sticks remaining there throughout the course of the following processes.

Pre-drying 

Τhe temperature reaches 70 °C and the average residence time of pasta ranges from 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the line of each manufacturer and type of pasta produced. At the end of the pre-drier, moisture of the product should be 18% (+/- 1%).

Drying

The temperature exceeds 85 °C and the average residence time of pasta in the drier ranges from 6 to 10 hours depending on the line of each manufacturer and type of pasta produced. At the end of the drier, moisture of the product should be 12% (+/- 0.5%).

Cooling

The temperature drops to 25 °C and the average residence time of pasta ranges from 30 to 40 minutes depending on the line of each manufacturer and type of pasta produced. At the end of the cooler, moisture of the product should be 10% (+/- 0.5%).

Storage

Pasta is stored at different floors in the silos and is kept there until the packaging process. In the remove and cut unit, pasta strains are removed from the sticks and cut to their final length and transferred to the appropriate packaging line.

Cutting

After the shaping process, pasta is cut by a cutting disk unit mounted underneath the die. The devices for cutting “penne” shaped pasta, have their own cutting disk unit. After cutting, pasta has acquired its final form.

Pre-drying

The temperature reaches 100 °C and the average residence time of pasta ranges from 3 to 5 minutes depending on the line of each manufacturer and type of pasta produced. At the end of the vibrating pre-drier, moisture of the product should be 25% (+/- 1%).

Drying

The temperature exceeds 85°C and the average residence time of pasta in the drier ranges from 3 to 4 hours depending on the line of each manufacturer and type of pasta produced. At the end of the drier, moisture of the product should be 12% (+/- 0.5%).

Cooling

The temperature drops to 25 °C and the average residence time ranges from 8 to 10 minutes depending on the line of each manufacturer and type of pasta produced. At the end of the cooler, moisture of the product should be 11% (+/- 0.5%).

Storage

Pasta is stored in different tanks and is kept there until the packaging process. After storage, pasta is transported by a mechanical transport system to the appropriate packaging line.

After the storage of the semi-finished products process, pasta is transported to the appropriate packaging line, applying the following steps:

- Pasta arrives at the dosage system of the appropriate packaging line.

- Pasta passes through the dosage system which set its desired net weight. 

- Pasta is packed and heat sealed in the suitable packaging film.

- Pasta packages pass through: 

1. a batch coding machine which prints with ink on the packaging film the product’s expiry date.
2. a weight control machine which detects and rejects packages that do not meet net weight specifications.
3. a metal detector which detects and rejects packages that may contain pieces of metal. 

- Pasta packages are boxed automatically into cartons.

- Cartons are automatically sealed and stacked on pallets with the use of robotic arms.

- Pallets are automatically wrapped and taken to the warehouse. 

After the packaging, boxing and palletizing process, pallets are led to the warehouse, applying the following steps:  

- Pallets are stored in various pallet positions with VNA (very narrow aisle) forklift trucks. 

- Pallets are scanned by personal digital assistant (PDA) devices according to the FIFO (First-In-First-Out) method. 

- Pallets are electronically monitored on 24-hour basis.