Carlotta Trucillo‘s path to the yeast industry started with law. After a classical secondary education, she graduated in law cum laude from Roma Tre University in 2012. In 2013, she joined Assitol in Rome, part of Confindustria, and yeast quickly became her field. Over the following decade, she rose from legal advisor to Deputy Director and represented Italy’s yeast producers in national and international fora. She also sat on COFALEC‘s Technical and Environment Committees. In June 2025, at the General Assembly in Naples, COFALEC’s members appointed her Secretary General: someone who already knew the association from the inside.
Her first words in the role were about gratitude and continuity: thanking the Board and members for their trust, and committing to build on the work done before her. COFALEC’s President, Vincent Saingier, spoke of the energy, experience and fresh perspective she would bring.
Advancing International Standards for Yeast
That first year brought a new headquarters and a new secretariat in Brussels, closer to the EU institutions. It also brought two milestones the sector had worked towards for years: ISO 23983:2025, the first international standard for fresh and dry baker’s yeast, and the first Codex Alimentarius standard on baker’s yeast. For bakers, they offer a shared reference for the quality of the yeast they use every day, wherever it is produced. Carlotta welcomed the ISO standard as a long-awaited achievement for the whole supply chain, and on 17 November she will present both standards at Fi Europe in Frankfurt with Torsten Pietsch, Chair of COFALEC’s Technical Committee.
Under her leadership, COFALEC has also worked to explain yeast beyond its own circles. The association has called for the word yeast to be reserved for living microorganisms, not chemical leavening agents sold as “chemical yeast”, and produced a short video explaining what yeast is.
Championing Industry Collaboration and Sustainability
Carlotta represents COFALEC in the Bread Initiative, which brings together Europe’s flour millers, ingredient suppliers, craft and industrial bakers and yeast producers to promote bread and its place in a balanced diet. With its partners, she is working to give the platform new visibility.
At EU level, she is building an advocacy roadmap around sustainability and competitiveness, focused on what keeps yeast production viable in Europe: access to molasses, the raw material yeast is grown on, fair competition with imports, and room for innovation in fermentation.
Beyond the expertise, there is the person. Carlotta is as professional as she is warm, and working with her builds trust and motivation, two things any association needs when it is changing as much as COFALEC has over the past year.
For most people, yeast is simply what makes bread rise. For Carlotta, it has become a career, and a cause she now champions in Brussels.
