It may be all doom and gloom as the coronavirus outbreak completely upends the world we knew but pasta makers may never have had it so good as panic-stricken shoppers stock up on a basic food to survive the crisis.
Scenes of mayhem in supermarkets around the world typically hone in on pasta shelves stripped bare in a matter of minutes, sending manufacturers into overdrive to try and keep up with demand.
"We are now 90 percent up in our sales over the past three weeks and more recently, up more than 100 percent," Xavier Riescher, head of France's top agri-food company the Panzani group, told AFP.
Riescher, who is also head of the French pasta makers industry association, said his factories normally did not operate over the weekend - but that has all changed now and they are on the go night and day.
"We are working seven days out of seven, 24 hours out of 24; there has been an exceptional mobilisation of French workers," he added.
It is the same story in Italy, the badly hit epicentre of the European outbreak, where production runs non-stop at La Molisana, the country's fourth largest pasta maker.
"Since the beginning of February, output is up more than 50 percent in Italy," said Michel Liquidato, sales director for the company in France.
The problem now is to keep up with demand.
Longer hours for the workforce are not enough on their own, Riescher said, noting that manufacturers have concentrated on making the simple forms of pasta rather than more elaborate versions.
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