Alternative Pizza Crusts

Some manufacturers believe a pizza doesn’t always need a wheat dough crust. Nowadays, for example, there are alternatives made from cauliflower, vegetables or even chicken meat.

+Traditional pizzas usually contain a crust made from six basic ingredients including: flour, sugar, water, salt, oil and yeast. The crust is the base used to deliver flavor through the sauce and toppings. Recently manufacturers have begun to differentiate themselves with unique offerings in the crust, such as various vegetable alternatives, seeds, flours, which offer different flavors and nutritional profiles.

According to Mintel’s latest U.S. pizza market report, three quarters of pizza consumers are willing to spend more on better quality frozen pizza. A new-comer in the US pizza market is Caulipower ® which started its first year with $2.1 million US sales. Caulipower® is a gluten free pizza crust that is made from cauliflower, brown rice flour, corn starch and tapioca as the base of the crust instead of wheat flour. The paleo version of the cauliflower crust is grain free with the main ingredients including cauliflower, almond flour, cassava flour, and tapioca flour.

In addition to ready-to-bake frozen cauliflower based pizzas, Cali’flour Foods offers frozen plain cauliflower pizza crusts and flatbreads that are ready to be topped with fresh ingredients at home. These crusts and flatbreads mix cauliflower with mozzarella cheese and egg whites to provide gluten, grain, and nut free pizza crust, ready to be topped. These crusts are a good source of protein and were formulated with the paleo and ketogenic diet in mind with 1 g of net carbs per serving. The flat breads are only 50 calories with 5 grams of protein and 3 grams of net carbs. Cali’flour Foods also offers a plantbased pizza crust that is vegan. This crust is made from cauliflower, sesame seed flour, sunflower seed flour, olive oil, psyillum husk and nutritional yeast. The vegan crusts are offered in three flavors: plain, spicy jalapeño, and Italian.

Realgood Pizza Co offers a unique pizza using chicken and cheese as the crust base for a high protein and low carb pizza that is gluten and grain free. In addition to the chicken crust pizza, Realgood also offers a cauliflower crust made from the base ingredients cauliflower, cheese, and egg. These crusts are providing more options for gluten-free diets.

Outside of the United States, Dr. Oetker’s “Yes It’s Pizza” is selling vegetable-based crusts with at least 38% vegetables in the crust and as a topping. These thin crispy crusts include varieties with beetroot, spinach, and cauliflower. The crust of the pizza is even the color of the vegetable, so the beetroot crust is pink and the spinach crust is green. While these pizza crusts still contain wheat flour, for the consumer looking to increase vegetable intake and try new flavors, this product is an interesting option.

Manufacturers are also offering consumer ways to increase creativity at home. Nestlé Wagner is offering ERNST WAGNER’s with three new types of fresh dough ready to be decorated and baked at home. The varieties of fresh dough include “Pizza” in a rectangular shape to fit in the baking pan, “Flammkuchen” being extra thin and crispy also the shape of a baking pan, “Pizza & Focaccia” for round and fluffier pizza.

Other things that are showing up are dough formulations, especially gluten-free products, which include ancient grains such as quinoa, sorghum, amaranth, teff, and buckwheat to provide variety in flavor and textures as well as health benefits while maintaining a clean label.

These new and interesting pizza crusts are pushing the boundaries on what can be used as a pizza crust. The thing these crusts have in common is targeting the trend towards healthier pizza, cleaner labels, and alternatives for all food products. +++

++ Freiberger has growth plans

The Berlin-based Freiberger Group is one of the pizza market’s most important players. A 100% subsidiary of Südzucker AG, it produces frozen and chilled pizzas, frozen pasta dishes and snacks, and is clearly focused on the own-brand retail business. Freiberger says it makes around 700 million frozen and chilled pizzas per year. The Berliner Morgenpost (newspaper) reports that the group is one of the world’s biggest suppliers, with a 2018 turnover figure of almost EUR 1 billion. The company itself does not give any turnover information. According to Freiberger, the number of employees is around 3,500, of which just over 600 work at the Berlin head office.

In total, the Group has eleven locations in Europe and the USA. Products are marketed in 30 European countries and in the USA, Canada and South Africa. The Freiberger company’s web site says it is the market leader in frozen and chilled own-brand pizzas in eight countries that between them account for 80% of worldwide pizza sales.

The Group took over the Magdeburg-based frozen pizza producer HASA in May 2017, and the US competitor Richelieu Foods in late 2017 as well, for which according to the Berliner Morgenpost it paid around EUR 350 million.

As a result, Freiberger now owns five factories in the east of the country. Its customers include almost all the USA’s major retail chains. According to the report, the management has big objectives for the new US subsidiary. Although the US market was previously also served from Europe, the number of dough pieces that found their way onto the other continent is said to have been clear.

Head of Sales Thomas Schulz told the newspaper that together with Richelieu, Freiberger will now grow in the USA. Americans in the US now spend around USD 4.5 billion annually on frozen pizzas, but up to now they have relied mainly on brands such as Dr. Oetker, Schwan’s and Wagner. Supermarket chains could use Freiberger’s own brands to offer favorable alternatives. That’s also why the company sees great potential in the US market. According to HansDetlev Schulz: “We have a 20% share in Europe, and should be able to achieve more in the USA.” +++