Manufacturing frozen pizza involves dozens of steps, especially when you consider pizza topping distribution. Although this may not seem like a very important step when creating frozen pizzas. But using the correct pizza topping distribution equipment can have a huge impact on the pizza you produce.
One common quality error frozen pizza manufacturing companies make is not placing accurate pizza toppings. This results in everything being misaligned. Creating quality frozen pizza often comes down to nailing every step of the pizza-making process.
In this article, we will discuss the best frozen pizza topping equipment and how automation can help improve quality. We will also discuss why accurate pizza toppings are so essential for producing a high-quality product. And manly how this impacts the consumer’s experience.
Frozen Pizza Toppings: Why Accuracy Matters For Quality Frozen Pizza
Frozen pizza hasn’t always had the best reputation, partly due to quality concerns. Even though there is an abundance of options available for consumers, a large portion of those options tend to be relatively low-quality. Because of this, if you want to stand out in the frozen pizza industry, you need to focus on creating quality frozen pizza.
Every part of the frozen pizza-making process can have a significant impact on the quality of the final result. So, it is essential that you have the right systems in place to automate this process and catch any quality issues early on.
Here are some examples of how pizza quality and frozen pizza toppings go hand-in-hand:
- Appearance: If the pizza toppings are not aligned correctly on the crust, this will be the first thing people see when they look at the frozen pizza. This reflects poorly on the manufacturing company and will result in consumers looking elsewhere.
- Flavor: Aside from appearance, if the pizza toppings are not aligned on the crust, this will also impact how the pizza tastes. The consumer won’t have a consistent experience as each slice may have different toppings or different amounts of toppings.
- Packaging: When pizza toppings aren’t accurately placed on the crust, this can have a negative impact on packaging. The packaging might not fit snugly over the pizza, or the toppings might shift and end up on the underside of the pizza.
- Food Waste: If you don’t have accurate topping distribution, this can result in food waste if low-quality pizzas have to be thrown out. Pizza toppings may even drop onto the conveyor system, resulting in additional food waste.
- Consumer Experience: The overall consumer experience will be negatively impacted if frozen pizza toppings are not accurately placed on the crust. Consumers have many options available, and even something as seemingly small as this could result in them looking elsewhere.
The Best Equipment For Accurate Pizza Toppings
Now that you know why accurate topping distribution is so important for frozen pizza manufacturers, what equipment do you need to achieve this? The main thing to consider when you want to improve the quality of your frozen pizzas is to make the transition to automation. Automated frozen pizza-making solutions will help you reduce the risk of human error and improve efficiency.
Here are some of the main types of pizza topping distribution equipment. This equipment can help you achieve more accurate pizza toppings.
Sauce Applicators
Sauce applicators work by automatically applying sauce to the pizza crust as they work their way down the frozen pizza line. By using a sauce applicator, you reduce the risk of using too much or too little sauce. This is creating a consistent and high-quality result.
At Quantum, we provide a variety of sauce applicators, including systems that recirculate and reuse excess sauce to avoid food waste.
Cheese/Topping Applicators
To create the most accurate topping distribution for your frozen pizzas, you need to invest in automated cheese/topping applicators. These applicators help to automatically add the correct amount of toppings to the pizzas, lining them up with the crust and the sauce.
Quantum cheese/topping applicators use a waterfall design. This means that applicators disperses the correct amount of toppings. Even applicators can reclaim and reuse excess ingredients to reduce waste.
Meat/Pepperoni Slicers
Many types of frozen pizzas have meat toppings. This can be more difficult to accurately add to the top of the pizzas as they go down the conveyor line. Quantum provides high-quality meat/pepperoni slicers, which not only slice but also apply the different meats to your frozen pizzas.
At Quantum, we even provide meat and pepperoni slicers that you can configure to accommodate deli-style meats and cheeses.
Dry/Granular Ingredient Applicators
Depending on the types of pizzas you produce, you may need to add dry or granular ingredients to the tops of the pizza crusts. If that is the case, you need to invest in dry/granular ingredient applicators. These are designed to handle ingredients like seeds, salt, Parmesan cheese, and spices.
Dry and granular ingredients can be especially difficult to add to pizzas by hand. Because there is a higher chance of too much or too little being added.
At Quantum, we provide two different types of dry/granular ingredient applicators suitable for frozen pizza manufacturing companies.
Circle Placers
Aside from pizza topping distribution equipment, you also need to invest in circle placers for your conveyor system. Quantum circle placing machines can use circular, round, or rectangular corrugated cardboard, depending on the shape of your pizza.
Circle placers ensure the crust is aligned on the corrugated cardboard. This helps to ensure that the sauce and toppings are also aligned correctly on the crust. If you don’t use a circle placer, you risk misaligned toppings, which can also negatively impact packaging.
Improve Production Quality and Speed With Quantum
Do you want to improve your frozen pizza-making process, especially when it comes to pizza topping distribution? At Quantum, we provide a variety of pizza equipment specifically designed to meet the needs of frozen pizza manufacturers. All of our equipment is designed to improve efficiency, reproducibility, scalability, and quality. Contact our team today to discover the automated pizza topping solution that best fits your company.