International Market

Around the World, Pizza Brings the Innovation International content provided by baking+biscuit international, an F2M publication.

© Marzia Giacobbe – stock.adobe.com AUGUST 2021 Q3 88

BY CATALINA MIHU, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF BAKING+BISCUIT INTERNATIONAL

While pizza restaurants around the world are working to regain their footing, pizza brands are riding the innovation wave, launching new offerings that meet diverse preferences, lifestyles and diets. Many try to replicate the authentic, almost elusive, dining-out quality, while better-for-you options explore all sides of what “better” stands for.

A universal choice for comfort food, pizza is enjoying a generous uptick in innovation. Retail brands, bolstered by the newfound interest of homebound consumers, are revamping the preparation process to replicate the quality of restaurant and delivery pizzas. Innovation has centered around highlighting quality and authenticity credentials on packaging, thereby raising consumers’ expectations, according to Mintel research.

In the UK, Crosta & Mollica Pizzeria Bosco adds restaurant-quality claims on its packaged pie. The Wood-Fired Sourdough Pizza with Mushrooms and Truffle & Garlic Cream Sauce features traditional sourdough baked in a woodfired oven for an authentic pizzeria taste.

In September 2020, Zizzi, a chain of Italian restaurants in the UK and Ireland, partnered with Sainsbury’s to launch its first at-home pizzas after a number of its restaurants closed due to lockdown measures. The popular Rustica pizzas, with varieties like Piccante Pepperoni, Margherita Classic and Vegan Jackfruit Pepperoni, are said to feature restaurant-quality ingredients.

Improved nutritional profiles also spell quality, and Mintel found that consumers are game to try better-for-you pizza, opening the door to a new range of possibilities.

“Brands are enriching recipes with nutritious ingredients that may provide protein, fiber or functional benefits,” said Stefania Apostol, innovation analyst at Mintel. “Similarly, vegetarian and vegan brands are highlighting the nutritional benefits of plant-based ingredients.”

Globally, consumers are looking for healthier pizzas: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, 74% of adults in Spain have found pizzas with healthier toppings to be appealing, as European consumers are eager to try better-for-you products made with healthier ingredients. Innovating around functional benefits can also appeal to health-conscious consumers.

“Pizza and pie brands have an opportunity to tap into this consumer interest in healthier alternatives by highlighting functional claims or nutritious and healthier ingredients like wholemeal flour or vegetables used as toppings and in crusts,” Apostol added.

One Planet Pizza, a British manufacturer of plant-based pizza, launched the No Clucks Pizza to celebrate National Fried Chicken Day in the UK in July, in partnership with vegan chick*n brand VFC. The pizza is topped with VFC’s vegan Southern fried chick*n popcorn pieces and features One Planet Pizza’s “secret family recipe” tomato sauce. The producer estimated that one chicken’s life will be saved for every 20 No Clucks Pizzas purchased in lieu of a regular chicken pizza, and 50 pence (approximately 62.5 cents) from every purchase is donated to the Big Red Rooster Cockerel Rescue.

When selecting ingredients for its pizzas, the most important aspect is the taste for One Planet Pizza.“They have to taste as good, if not better, than meat and dairy alternatives,” Hill said. “Once we’ve nailed the taste, the aim is to make them as healthy and sustainable as possible. Our pizza range on average has at least 25% less salt and sugar.”

Toronto, Canada-based GA Pizza caters to the Canadian flexitarian consumers with its own plant-based launch: the naturally-leavened, New York-inspired Impossible Pizza, a collaboration with Impossible Foods. Its recipe features housemade tomato sauce and Impossible “meat” made from plants that is seasoned with chili, garlic and toasted fennel seed. Fresh Anaheim chilis and thinly shaved white onions complement the fennel-spiced plant-based protein. The pizza is finished with three types of cheese: premium fior di latte, grass-fed mozzarella and grana padano.

The plant-based trend is reaching new heights, and vegetarian and vegan pizza brands are on board as they trade dairy for exciting topping combinations among vegetables and plant protein. UK-based Asda’s Plant Based Chargrilled Veg Flatbread Pizza is a vegan product that is low in saturated fat, which contributes to the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol levels and is high in fiber.

Ethical and environmental claims are also on the rise in pizza aisles across Europe as consumers’ concerns about the climate crisis intensify. Mintel reported that 44% of UK consumers say the amount of packaging used for ready meals discourages them from buying them more often. As a result, there has been an increase in launches with ethical and environmental claims in recent years dominated by environmentally friendly packages and recyclable claims. “This relates to the Mintel trend ‘Rethink Plastic’, which outlines how plastic in itself is not bad, but our throwaway culture of it is,” Apostol said. “Brands and consumers are therefore reviewing their own behaviors to prevent plastic pollution.”

This environmental awareness and consumers’ increased concern over packaging’s impact on the environment are giving way to the debut of fully recyclable and plastic-free packs. Mintel also highlighted new environmentally friendly entries in Europe’s market. Mix Créateur de Goût Pizza del Gusto! Goat’s Cheese, Walnut & Honey Pizza retails in a partly recyclable pack made with a 100% recycled carton and printed with vegetable ink in France. In the UK, Pieminister Gluten Free Moo Beef Steak & Ale Pie has been repackaged in a newly designed plastic-free, fully recyclable and biodegradable pack with a pack window made from wood pulp.

While the US is home to the largest number of pizza restaurants worldwide with 90,817 pizza restaurants as of 2020 — more than the top four markets combined (88,100) according to BoldData — Italy comes in second, with 42,288 pizzerias, and Brazil completes the top three with 32,283 pizza places. Australia, ranking eighth on the list, is an interesting mention with 5,598 pizza restaurants. That amounts to one of the highest numbers of pizza outlets per capita.

Germany also continues to see growth. This is due in part to many chains opening stores throughout the country. Close to 700 restaurants have opened since 2016, bringing the total count to 13,521 as of this year. Berlin is also the country’s pizza capital, with almost 500 stores, more than twice the number of those in Munich (232). Cologne and Hamburg are the other major pizza centers with more than 200 dedicated businesses each. BoldData: number of pizza restaurants by country in 2020

OTHER 56,386

USA 90,302

GERMANY 13,529

BRAZIL 32,283

Source: BoldData Food Database / Created with Datawrapper

ITALY 42,288 As foodservice picks up the pace all over the world, pizza maintains its reign in consumers’ choices, offering plenty to be experienced either at home or at the local pizza place.

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