Fast Facts on Pizza
- The Ancient Greeks covered their bread with oils, herbs, and cheese.
- The Romans developed placenta, a sheet of flour topped with cheese and honey and flavored with bay leaves.
- Americans eat almost 350 slices of pizza each second!
- Three billion pizzas are sold annually; no wonder that pizza is a $30 billion industry today!
- Close to 40 per cent of all pizzas sold are pepperoni pizzas.
- Other popular toppings include onions, extra cheese, and green pepper. The least popular topping is -- you guessed it -- anchovies.
- Some intriguing topping that one might be tempted to sample include oysters, dandelions, and peanut butter and jelly!
- While Americans prefer meat toppings, a popular pizza topping in Japan is squid and tofu.
- In India tandoori chicken and chili paneer are favorites.
- Brazilians enjoy green peas on a pizza while Russians top it with mockba -- a mix of sardines, tuna, mackerel, salmon and onions.
- The original Italian pizza was made with green peppers and mozzarella cheese.
- The original Greek pizza was simply crust and vegetables -- no cheese!
- October is National Pizza Festival Month.
- The largest pizza was at the Norwood Pick 'n Pay hypermarket in Johannesburg, South Africa. According to the Guinness Book of Records the pizza was 37.4 meters (122 feet 8 inches) in diameter and was made using 500 kg of flour, 800 kg of cheese and 900 kg of tomato puree. This was accomplished on December 8, 1990.
Pizza Producers Prize
Thursday, 4 February 2010: BBC News reported that The Traditional Speciality Guaranteed label on Naples pizza was approved by The European Union. Producers can charge more but must also follow set standards. They must use only San Marzano tomatoes and fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese.
