North Americans love it!

Nobody eats pizza in quite the same bulk as North Americans. The U.S.A devours 350 slices of the stuff every second. According to the National Association of Pizza Operators, this amounts to 100 acres of food every 24 hours - or 76 football pitches worth of doughy goodness.

Some 93% of Americans eat pizza at least once a month, with 36% digesting a topping of their choice for breakfast. It’s not stated whether this is left over from the night before, or a genuine breakfast meal. Either way, pizza always tastes better the next day…

The world’s biggest Pizza!

The world’s largest pizza was prepared by Dovilio Nardi, Andrea Mannocchi, Marco Nardi, Matteo Nardi and Matteo Giannotte in Rome on December 13, 2012. It had a total surface area of 13,580.28 square feet.

'Had'? You bet. After the record was measured, the huge pie was cut into bits and served up to anyone who wished to eat it. As such, the finished good proved rather popular. Almost 900kg of tomato paste and 800kg of cheese didn't prove difficult to give away.

 Delivery in Space!

Back in 2001, the Russian Space Agency was paid more than $1 million to deliver a Pizza Hut meal to the International Space Station. Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Usachov had the honour of receiving the world’s first ‘space pizza’ - topped with salami, as pepperoni didn’t survive the 60-day space testing programme.

To ensure that the food was digestible, the vacuum-sealed delivery had to undergo rigorous stabilised thermal conditions. After ‘certification for consumption’ was granted, the Pizza Hut delivery didn’t last long…

World War II

Besides using bacon fat for explosives, World War II also brought pizza to the masses. During the occupation of Italy, allied troops found themselves eating local foods to supplement their dwindling rations. Pizza quickly became a prime choice, so much so that local bakers could barely keep up with demand.

When troops returned home post-1945, they took their craving for pizza with them. It didn’t take long before the food’s popularity skyrocketed.

However…

It took until 2009 for the first North Korean pizzeria to open. As soon as tin-pot North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il had any form of power, he had top Italian chefs flown into Pyongyang to personally feed him.

Eventually, Kim Jong-il had the chefs teach their craft to a select few. Disappointed with the retention of new skills, and having shot those who didn’t make the perfect pizza, a second group were flown to Naples and Rome for education before North Korea’s first Pizzeria had its grand opening.

So much pizza…

Believe it or not, but there’s a guy in Romania with a unique world record. During one week in 2006, Cristian Dumitru ate 200 pounds of pizza, more than his own body weight, surpassing Takeru Kobayashi’s effort some years previously. Not that Takeru left it there. Embittered, he still argues that that the produce Cristian had eaten had too low a ‘sauce:cheese’ ratio to be considered ‘real’ pizza.

UK Sales

According to our data, frozen pizza is purchased far more regularly than pizza found in the chiller. Looking specifically at Cheese toppings, the most popular item is from San Marco. Their frozen cheese pizza trumps Chicago Town, Ristorante, and Goodfellas in the UK sales stake.

Clients in Wales sell a far higher ratio of frozen pizzas when compared to other sections of Britain. Some 94% of sales are frozen. Those living in the South West typically spend more on chiller pizzas than other segments of the country.

For more information on UK pizza sales, contact our data team.