Product Description
Ristorante pizza is an exquisite Italian pizza on a thin crispy dough with various toppings. The pizza is prepared according to a unique recipe using high-quality ingredients. The range includes more than ten flavors, including “quattro formaggi,” with mushrooms, salami, ham, and others. It takes about ten minutes to cook this product fully. The pizza maker is Oetker, a German multinational company that produces baking powder, cake mixes, frozen pizza, puddings, cornflakes, and other products. The company is the owner of the Oetker Group, headquartered in Bielefeld. The company also makes pizzas for vegetarians, vegans, and people with lactose intolerance.
Type of Perishable Product
Frozen pizza is a semi-finished product that requires only rapid temperature treatment to be ready. Authentic Italian pizza and frozen semi-finished pizza consist of two main components – the base and toppings. Frozen pizza and other semi-finished culinary products appeared on the market relatively recently. It is worth paying particular attention to the production process of frozen pizza. Specialists in the food industry developed a unique method to manufacture such food products. Using a so-called “flash freezing,” ready-made pizza quickly cooled. This method allows one to save most of the taste and palatability characteristics of the dish. Frozen pizza is quickly brought to perfection using the microwave or conventional oven.
Storage
The duration of cooling of different food products is determined by several factors, primarily by their thermal conductivity. As a rule, most products have low thermal conductivity, so cooling takes a long time – from several hours to several days. For long-term cold storage, food is used to freeze in freezers. When stored properly, unopened pizza packages usually remain in their best quality for two months. Store frozen purchased pizza in the freezer at a temperature no higher than -18 degrees Celsius (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2018). Transportation should also be at low temperatures to avoid food spoilage. Humidity should not exceed 75% because frozen pizza packages and the pizza itself can go bad at high humidity and temperature (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2018). Clearance from cooling appliances, ceilings, and walls must be maintained during storage.
All storage conditions are indicated by the specific product’s manufacturer on the product’s packaging. Frozen pizza packaging must withstand low temperatures and temperature fluctuations during defrosting without deforming or losing strength. It must also comply with the sanitary and hygienic requirements and regulations that apply to food packaging. The density of the cardboard and the structure’s stiffness should be such that the box will not deform during transportation. In addition, the bottom of the box should not sag under the pizza’s weight. The sides and corners by which the box is held should also not deform.
Lifespan
The maximum shelf life of such a product is approximately 1.5 years. Repeated freezing of this semi-finished product is not allowed. After cooking pizza, the lifespan is reduced to a few hours at room temperature or to two days if stored in the refrigerator (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2021). The average shelf life of a pizza without refrigeration is a maximum of 6 hours. When it comes to selling freshly baked pizza, it is essential to understand that it is a highly perishable product. Waste is necessarily included in the price of the finished product. As for frozen pizza, it can be stored for several months, so losses in this segment are minimal. Frozen pizza producers usually make large batches of frozen products, which reduces the cost due to volume.
References
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2021). Cold food storage chart. Web.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2018). Refrigerator & freezer storage chart. Web.