Pizza Remains All-time Fave Among Americans
Pizza is an all-time favorite food among Americans. In fact, Americans consume 350 slices of pizza every second, and 15 percent consider as top in the list of comfort food.
To delve deeper into the popularity of pizza, Melanie Zanoza Bartelme, associate editor of Food Technology, outlines eight American pizza trends, preferences and consumption habits.
These habits and preferences are published in the November issue of Food Technology magazine.
Eight American Pizza Trends
1. More than half (58%) of U.S. pizza munchers say they would buy more frozen pizza if it had more premium or gourmet ingredients, rising to 72 percent of 25-34 year olds. This means nearly 3 in 5 US pizza eaters preferred to buy more frozen pizza.
In addition, a majority of Americans, accounting for more than half (55 percent) of US consumers agree that they’d buy more frozen pizza if it wasn’t so processed.
2. Restaurants have become a favorite place for pizza consumption. The research firm Technomic says Americans on average are eating pizza four times a month, up from 3.4 times a month in 2014, and pizza consumption has reached its highest level in the past four years.
3. Toppings such as onion, tomato, mushroom and peppers are popular among consumers. In fact, these pizza toppings were featured on at least 73 percent of restaurant menus (Technomic 2016).
4. Now, pizza lovers are going for healthier options such as gluten-free pizza. Gluten-free launches increased 58 percent between 2012 and 2015 (Mintel 2016).
5. Nothing can beat the tomato-based red sauce, which remains the most common pizza topping. However, nontraditional sauces such as ranch, alfredo and white sauce are also starting to be seen now (Packaged Facts 2015).
6. Looking at pizza cheese, Mozzarella reigns supreme among all other options, with 71 percent. Ricotta comes in second Parmesan hits the third spot. (Packaged Facts 2015).
7. Pizza is more delicious with a meat topping. For top meats, sausage and pepperoni are featured on 73 percent of restaurant menus. (Technomic 2016).
8.Pizza lovers prefer to have thinner crusts and half of consumers prefer to go thin. Hand-tossed is the No. 1 crust type found on restaurant menus, preferred by 57 percent of consumers (Technomic 2016).
