It’s safe to say that most people think of pizza as gooey, greasy, and even indulgent. Extra-cheese with pepperoni is without a doubt a fan favorite! However, as consumers are becoming more health-conscious, pizza labels have the opportunity to fill a new market niche and connect with new customers by creating healthy frozen pizza options. But where to start?
Creating healthy frozen pizzas can present its own challenges to pizza production, especially regarding machine capability. Here, we’ll discuss some of these challenges of healthy types of frozen pizza– as well as offer solutions to solving them. We’ll also dive into different ways your brand can make healthy recipes, including incorporating healthy frozen pizza crust options. But first, we’ll look at how sodium and sugar in frozen pizza play a role in the nutrition of this iconic dish.
Exploring Sodium and Sugar in Frozen Pizza
It shouldn’t be a surprise that sodium and sugar in frozen pizza constitute a significant portion of any recipe. These ingredients are important– they help create the iconic taste. However, as more and more customers are looking for health-conscious frozen meals, it’s up to frozen pizza manufacturers to meet this demand. Healthy frozen pizza recipes are possible with the right equipment to make them.
In a typical cheese pizza, there is about 3.8g of sugar and 640mg of sodium per slice of pizza. Adding in vegetables and meats, your brand can create well-balanced meals. However, customers are still looking for even healthier alternatives with lowered sugar and sodium. While pizza brands can tap into this market niche, they must be prepared to make healthy frozen pizza. Do labels have equipment that can accommodate non-standard ingredients like dough with reduced sodium and sugar, gluten-free dough, or dairy-free cheeses? Can brands easily switch between ingredients and have easy-to-clean equipment to do so? These are just two challenges of making healthy types of frozen pizza. We’ll explore these obstacles next.
Challenges of Healthy Types of Frozen Pizza– and Solutions
Health-conscious customers and customers with dietary restrictions may be looking for decreased sodium and sugar in frozen pizza, and it’s up to frozen pizza manufacturers to create such recipes. Still, creating healthier alternatives presents its own challenges to pizza production, which can decrease productivity if brands aren’t prepared. Here are some challenges to making healthy frozen pizza, and some solutions for manufacturers.
Different Dough and Cheese Consistency
Brands may use gluten-free dough and dough different from your typical pizza to reduce sodium and sugar in frozen pizzas. Brands may also use dairy-free cheeses or cheeses with reduced sodium, sugar, and/or fat. As a result, these healthier ingredients often have different consistencies compared to regular pizzas. If brands don’t employ flexible automated pizza equipment, they may struggle to assemble these healthy frozen pizzas.
The new ingredients can cause jams in the assembly line and even make products fail QC if the ingredient applicators can’t dispense them properly. At Quantum, our conveying systems like our infeed conveyor can keep the healthier dough types oriented the right way throughout assembly, especially when used in conjunction with our Cardboard Circle Placers. As for dairy-free and other healthier cheeses, our Cheese/Topping Applicators can dispense any shredded cheese and healthy IQF ingredients. This allows brands to create healthy frozen pizza recipes without hassle and as soon as possible.
Ingredient Flexibility
On a similar note, ingredient flexibility is key to creating healthy types of frozen pizza. Beyond gluten-free dough or dairy-free cheeses, there are other ingredients that your brand can include and switch to in order to build healthy alternatives. Being able to apply a range of vegetables for veggie pizza or reduced-sodium meat slices are just two ways to create healthy frozen pizzas. But, the right equipment is required for this success. Quantum equipment can facilitate ingredient flexibility so brands can easily diversify their product line.
Switching Ingredients and Managing Maintenance
The last challenge in creating healthy types of frozen pizza that we’ll explore is switching ingredients and managing maintenance. Brands have established recipes and productivity for these products could decrease as healthier alternatives are added to workflows. Labels need pizza equipment that staff can easily switch ingredients for in order to mitigate downtime. It’s also necessary that brands can easily clean machinery in between ingredient usages. This reduces the risk of cross-contamination between gluten-free and dairy-free ingredients and regular toppings. Simple ingredient switchover and maintenance is not only important for logistics, but it’s also a matter of customer health.
At Quantum, we’ve made sure that staff find it easy to switch ingredients and manage maintenance. Our designs are stainless-steel and washdown compatible, ideal for effective cleaning. Our equipment is also easily fixed in-house, further simplifying maintenance.
These challenges can be major obstacles in pizza production when brands aren’t prepared to handle them. At Quantum, we offer automated solutions that can solve these issues before they negatively affect your bottom line. This way, your brand can also create healthy frozen pizza crust options for customers who need them.
Creating Pizzas With Healthy Frozen Pizza Crust Options
Creating healthier alternatives with vegetable toppings, low-sodium meat slices, and dairy-free cheeses are great ways to connect with health-minded customers. However, the possibilities don’t end there, especially when Quantum equipment can help your brand create healthy recipes. We’ve explored gluten-free dough up top, but there are more ways to make pizza crust more healthy. Here are a couple of ideas for frozen pizza crust options:
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- Crusts with reduced sugar and sodium– Your label can lower the sodium and sugar content in its new recipes for customers looking for heart-healthy pizzas.
- Flatbread Pizzas– Flatbread pizzas are popular for their crunchiness, but they also offer the benefit of having fewer calories and carbs. This pizza crust type guarantees the preference of the health-minded customer.
- Alternative Doughs– Your brand can also develop pizzas with untraditional crusts. Crusts made from cauliflower, sweet potato, and even broccoli offer their own health benefits while serving as “dough.”
While these are just a couple of ideas, your brand can conduct low-risk R&D with Quantum equipment, knowing that our tech is up to the task. Our automated solutions keep operational and R&D costs low while allowing brands to create the healthy products that brands envision.
Create Healthy Options without Hassle With Quantum
Quantum Technical Services builds industry-leading equipment that allows brands to create all kinds of recipes, including healthier options for health-conscious customers. We’ve designed our automated pizza technology to facilitate a wide range of toppings and crust types so brands can connect with customers in various markets, all while keeping operational costs down. Contact our team today to find out which of our automated solutions can make healthy options a reality for your brand.