How to choose grissini

The types of grissini and what sets them apart

Piedmont has two traditional grissini, the rubatà and the stirato, and what sets them apart is the way the dough is shaped. Both are on the Italian Ministry of Agriculture's national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT) for Piedmont: ‘Grissino stirato’ as number 273 and ‘Rubatà’ as number 309, in the 26th revision of the list, from February 2026. Both were already on Piedmont's first list of traditional products, in 2000.

A product joins that list when it has been made, preserved and matured in the same way, in the same area, for at least 25 years. The list is a survey: it is not a protected designation like PDO or PGI, and it gives producers no rights.

The rubatà

The Regione Piemonte fact sheet describes the traditional rubatà like this. The dough is shaped into small batons, which are lengthened by rolling them on the table over a light dusting of fine bran: the grissini come out irregular, no more than 40–50 cm long, and bake in an oven that goes from 250 down to 200 °C, until they have lost all their water. The ingredients are soft wheat flour type 0 or 00, water, yeast and salt.

On fat, the fact sheet records two schools of thought. For some bakers, in the Lanzo Valleys and the Chisone and Germanasca Valleys, the traditional rubatà has no fat; for others, in Turin, it can contain lard, or oil and lard. In the Monregalese area there may also be milk or butter.

According to the fact sheet it is made in Chieri and Andezeno, in the province of Turin, and in the Monregalese area, in the province of Cuneo; Turismo Torino, the tourist board, calls it the rubatà of Chieri and places it throughout the Chierese area, from Chieri to Poirino and Andezeno. For the Region the name means ‘rolled’, but Turismo Torino and Wikipedia also give other explanations. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was a bread ‘for feast days’ eaten by well-off families, and a document of 1793 on bread taxes, in the historical archive of the town of Mondovi, mentions the ‘long white bread called lavato, and the one called rubattato’.

The stirato

According to the Region's fact sheet, the stirato (‘stretched’) is golden, very crisp, crunchy and hollow inside. It starts from strips of dough about 10 cm long and about 3 cm wide, which are lengthened by gently pulling them from both ends to about 1.50 m; then the grissini rise and bake at between 200 and 250 °C, for longer than bread, until they have lost all their water. The ingredients are those of the rubatà, with the same two schools of thought on fat.

It is a traditional product of the Lanzo Valleys, the Canavese, the Pinerolese and Turin, and in Waldensian cooking it is one of the ingredients of the soup Supa dij Barbet. Wikipedia adds that the rubatà is the older form.

The ‘grissini torinesi’ you find in shops

In Google's Italian search suggestions, ‘grissini torinesi’ (Turin grissini) appears mostly next to the names of brands found in supermarkets. It is a trade name: the European register of PDOs and PGIs has no grissino, and the name does not tell you how the grissino is made. Its list of ingredients does.

Flavoured grissini and other variants

Today there are also flavoured grissini, with oregano, sesame, cumin and the like: no institutional source defines them as a type, and they are a commercial category. Wikipedia also mentions variants made with milk instead of water, with added olive oil or lard, or with a stubbier shape; according to the Region's fact sheets, however, lard, or oil with lard, is already found in some traditional grissini, and milk or butter in the rubatà of the Monregalese area.

Outside Piedmont, the national list of traditional products also includes the Resiutta grissino, in Friuli Venezia Giulia, and ‘Grissini dolci’ (sweet grissini), in Lombardy.

These are descriptions of the traditional types, as given in the Regione Piemonte fact sheets: they do not say how any individual producer works. For a particular grissino, look at its label and its product sheet.

How to read a grissini label

On the label of a prepacked food, EU Regulation 1169/2011 makes these particulars mandatory: the name of the food, the list of ingredients, allergens, the quantity of certain ingredients, the net quantity, the date of minimum durability, any special storage conditions, the name and address of the food business operator, the country of origin or place of provenance where required, instructions for use where needed, and the nutrition declaration.

For grissini sold without packaging, over the counter, EU law only requires allergen information and leaves the rest to each Member State. In Italy, where the grissini are displayed, a sign or an equivalent system must give at least the name of the food and the list of ingredients, with allergens highlighted; in bakeries the list of ingredients can also be kept in a register near the counter. This is required by Italian Legislative Decree 231 of 2017, Article 19. The nutrition table, on the other hand, is not mandatory for grissini sold over the counter.

Ingredients are listed by weight

Ingredients are listed in descending order of weight, as weighed when they go into the dough: the first is the one present in the greatest amount. The exceptions are ingredients that make up less than 2% of the finished product, which can be listed at the end in a different order.

The fat is shown in the list of ingredients

The regulation also says how fats are named in the list. Refined vegetable oils and fats can be grouped as ‘vegetable oils’ or ‘vegetable fats’, but must be followed immediately by the plants they come from, for example sunflower or palm; and a hydrogenated oil or fat must say so, ‘fully hydrogenated’ or ‘partly hydrogenated’. For refined animal oils and fats, on the other hand, the name of the category is enough, ‘animal oil’ or ‘animal fat’, or the specific animal origin, for example ‘pork fat’; lard can also simply be called by its name.

Lard is the fat obtained by slowly melting pork fat: grissini made with lard are not suitable for anyone who doesn't eat pork or wants to avoid ingredients of animal origin.

‘Extra virgin olive oil’ and ‘olive oil’ are two different things too: in the European Union they are two distinct categories of olive oil. When a label names both, they are two different ingredients, as in L'Extravergine, one of ours, which has extra virgin olive oil at 5.5% and olive oil at 5.5%.

The Vocabolario Treccani, a leading Italian dictionary, notes that grissini sometimes have oil or butter added to make them more crumbly. This guide does not say which fat is better: it tells you where to read which one is used.

Flour: 00, 0, 1, 2 and wholemeal

‘Type 00’, ‘type 0’, ‘type 1’, ‘type 2’ and ‘integrale’ (wholemeal) are legal categories of Italian soft wheat flour, set by Presidential Decree (DPR) 187 of 2001. They differ in their ash content, that is, their mineral salts: at most 0.55 for 00 and 0.65 for 0, and between 1.30 and 1.70 for wholemeal, per hundred parts of dry matter. The lower the number, the more refined the flour. A grissino with ‘wholemeal’ in its name may also contain another type of flour: the list of ingredients tells you in what proportion.

The percentage of the ingredients that matter

An ingredient's percentage is mandatory when the ingredient appears in the product's name, when the label emphasises it in words or pictures, or when it is needed to distinguish the product. That is why a grissino ‘with extra virgin olive oil’ or ‘with sesame’ says how much it contains: Lo Speziato, one of ours, for example, lists turmeric at 2.3% and dried rosemary at 2.3%.

Nutrition figures are per 100 g

The nutrition table gives the energy value and the amounts of fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt; fibre is optional. The figures are always per 100 g, so you can compare different products even when the packs weigh different amounts.

The figures come from the labels. Each product page has the full table.

Allergens are highlighted

The regulation lists 14 allergens, and in the list of ingredients they must be highlighted in a typeface that sets them apart from the rest, through the font, style or background colour: that's why you see WHEAT, SESAME or MILK in capitals or bold. In grissini you will come across cereals containing gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats), sesame seeds, soybeans, milk, nuts, mustard, and sulphur dioxide and sulphites at more than 10 mg/kg.

‘May contain’ signals a possible, unintended presence: it is information the producer adds voluntarily, because the regulation does not require it, but like all voluntary information it must not mislead or be ambiguous. Suitability for vegetarians or vegans and the absence of gluten are voluntary information too; ‘gluten-free’, however, can only be used within the legal limit.

All our products contain gluten. On the labels of our grissini, the possible traces include sesame seeds, soybeans, mustard and nuts; the label of Brichet Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino also mentions sulphur dioxide, and for that product the label on the pack is what counts.

The date on the pack

Packaged grissini carry a date of minimum durability: ‘best before …’ when the date includes the day, ‘best before end …’ otherwise. For foods that keep for more than three months but not more than eighteen, the month and year are enough. It is the date until which the product, stored properly, retains its specific properties. A true expiry date, ‘use by’, applies only to highly perishable foods. Fresh bread, which is eaten within a day, does not need a date of minimum durability; packaged grissini do.

According to EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, ‘best before’ is about quality, not safety: after that date a product that has been stored properly can still be eaten, although it may have lost some flavour, texture or freshness, and you can rely on your senses of sight, smell and taste. According to a 2018 European Commission study, up to 10% of the food waste generated each year in the EU is linked to date marking.

Which of our grissini to choose for each use

From here on we are talking about our own grissini. Grissinificio Feyles has been making Rubatà grissini since 1968; since early 2025 it has been working at its bakery in Cambiano, just outside Turin. Each name leads to the product page, with the full list of ingredients, the allergens and the nutrition information, and the story of the rubatà is on the page What are Rubatà grissini?

Where to buy our grissini

Our grissini are sold in our shops in Turin and Cambiano and in the online shop, which delivers to addresses in Italy.

How to store grissini

The Region's fact sheets say that grissini of both types bake until they have lost all their water. When they absorb moisture from the air, dry snacks lose their crispness, as research by Katz and Labuza measured in 1981. That's why, once opened, the pack should be closed tightly, or the grissini moved into a dry, closed container.

The technical sheets for our Rubatà and Brichet say this. Unopened, they should be kept in a cool, dry place until the best before date shown on the pack. Once opened, they should be left in their pack, or moved into a clean, dry, closed food container or bag, away from light, heat and moisture.