Like the fashion and technology industries, the frozen food industry experiences changes in trends often. With the rise of social media, TikTok in particular, consumers are setting new trends, creating high demand for viral recipes. While companies can theoretically turn a profit by including popular ingredients in their recipes, is it possible to do so?
Food crazes on social media have a very short lifespan, however, they can offer key insights to frozen pizza manufacturers into what types of meals and ingredients the consumer is interested in. Diversifying your label’s pizza toppings is a great way to include popular ingredients and connect to more customers. But what’s an easy way to meet this quick rise in demand?
Automation is key in meeting sharp increases in demand for new pizza toppings. Automated food equipment grants a pizza brand the ability to develop, test, and distribute new products quickly to realize value from a trend. Time is everything when it comes to keeping up with trends, and automated equipment saves time. In this guide, we’ll explore popular pizza toppings and regional pizza trends. But first, let’s take a look at how automation plays a key part in pizza manufacturers meeting demand.
Frozen Pizza Manufacturers and New Demands
Viral food trends create free research for the frozen food industry. They indicate what ingredients are popular and why. They also can gauge how long these trends might last due to the volume of people participating and talking about them online. While difficult to anticipate, these trends are valuable to frozen pizza manufacturers looking to develop new products that customers want.
Does pineapple belong on pizza? While that might still be up for debate, it’s still a debate. People still talk about pizza toppings they like, and curious customers are willing to try new products. One viral video that questions whether blue cheese belongs on pizza might convince thousands of consumers to try pizza with blue cheese to see for themselves.
Versatility and Volume: Finding Equipment Up to the Challenge
Trends are fleeting – that’s their nature. However, they provide a great opportunity to capitalize on quick demand, especially before other pizza manufacturers can follow the craze. However, this is only possible if your brand has the right equipment. But what does that look like?
Quantum automated pizza topping applicators can quickly dispense a range of ingredients in a production line with very little financial cost. Quantum equipment can also facilitate the high-speed production of a high volume of products to meet demand. The versatile design of our cheese/IQF ingredient applicators, meat slicers, and dry/granular ingredient applicators allows brands to apply and change between a diverse selection of ingredients to create new recipes quickly and consistently.
Pepperoni Slices and Other Top Trends
Automation makes the application of pepperoni slices, cheese, and other pizza toppings simple without sacrificing quality. Now, let’s look at top trends in pizza toppings that your brand can incorporate into its product line.
Pepperoni Slices
Pepperoni slices are classic toppings on any pizza. Pepperoni slices remain a customer favorite, along with other sliced meat like sausage. Pepperoni slices are pizza topping staples and worth including in your pizza production line because of their consistent popularity.
Sweet Heat
According to The Food Institute, sweet heat is a rising pizza topping trend for 2024. Sweet heat is a combination of both sweet and spicy flavors that creates a unique flavor profile. Ingredients to create such taste can include jalapeño peppers, balsamic dressing, sriracha sauce, honey mustard, and fruit (but maybe not all together!).
Pickled Vegetables
Pickled vegetables are also becoming more popular as toppings on pizza. They offer a complex blend of flavors that is more gourmet. Pickled vegetables can easily be made as IQF vegetables and seamlessly added to pizzas on your production line.
These are just some top trends in pizza toppings to spark new recipes for your labels to connect to more customers. Now, let’s explore regional pizza trends to find even more inspiration.
Regional Pizza Trends and Toppings
As a pizza brand, you’re likely familiar with the popular regional pizza styles like traditional New York-style, Chicago deep-dish pizza, and Margherita pizza, just to name a few. However, there are far more regional pizza types and trends to explore, which may even inspire new recipes for your label! Let’s look at a couple of lesser-known regional pizza trends and toppings that your brand can include to make new creations and start its own trends.
Quad-City Style Pizza
Quad-City style pizza refers to the group of cities in the midwest – Rock Island and Moline in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. A couple of ingredients that make this pizza unique are malt in the crust, ground cayenne pepper, and chili flakes. Quad-City style pizza is definitely for the more adventurous pizza fan.
Maine Lobster Pizza
Lobster is a popular regional topping in Maine, combined with garlic, butter, and other herbs. Pizza manufacturers can easily include IQF lobster as a pizza topping to bring New England to customers around the world.
New Haven White Clam Pizza
Also from New England is the New Haven pizza. This kind of pizza is topped with clams, olive oil, garlic, and grated Romano cheese. Quantum equipment can apply IQF clams, grated cheese, granulated garlic, and olive oil so brands can apply limitless inspiration from regional pizza trends.
Innovate New Pizza Trends with Quantum
Quantum Technical Services provides pizza labels around the world with automated solutions tailored to each of our client’s production lines. Our continued dedication to the latest automated food equipment technology has made us the industry leader – as our equipment simplifies operations yet facilitates innovation. Designed to meet the demands of high-volume pizza production lines, Quantum equipment offers a wide range of automated machinery to help brands outpace the competition. We prioritize ingredient versatility and equipment customization so that our clients can make unique and high-quality products for their customers. By decreasing the risk associated with R&D, our equipment allows our clients to connect with more people across the globe. Let us handle the mechanics while your team focuses on making great products. Contact Quantum today to find out how your brand can innovate with Quantum equipment.