Product Comparison: Frozen Pizza

The Food Geeks will periodically do product comparisons, evaluating similar products for healthiness and taste. The goal is to help consumers make smarter food choices – ones where taste is not sacrificed for healthiness. The products are scored out of 10: a maximum score of 5 is given for each the health and taste factors.

This time around, the Food Geeks compared frozen pizza – a favourite food of poor college students and kids of super-busy moms. Four pizzas were evaluated against one another: two pizzas that are marketed as “healthy” choices and two pizzas that make no “healthy” claims. All four pizzas were vegetarian (though not vegan). The two healthy pizzas were Lean Cuisine and Delissio Balance; the regular pizzas were Ristorante and Delissio Thin Crust.

Four people participated in the product comparison: Mr. and Mrs. Strawberry Shortcake, and Mr. and Mrs. Sergeant Pepper.

THE HEALTH FACTOR

To be fair in our comparison, we normalized the nutrition facts to the same serving size according to weight (the links to the nutrition facts are for per serving size as per company). We also looked at the ingredients to compare variety of ingredients and also if there were any food additives that seemed out of the ordinary (or hence, ingredients that we were clueless about or did not know how to pronounce). Also keep in mind that these are all vegetarian pizzas - if we compared pizzas with meat toppings the nutrition facts would be different, and most likely higher.

Delissio Thin Crust Pizza (Kraft Foods)
Roasted Vegetable
Nutrition Facts (Per 1/5 pizza - 123g)
220 calories
10g fat (4.5g saturated fats)
20mg Cholesterol
500mg Sodium
25g Carbohydrate
10 g Protein

The definite plus to this product is the variety of vegetables you get – plus the presentation is oh so colourful! Since this product was not marketed as a healthy alternative, the nutrition facts are pretty standard pizza fare. This pizza is sold as a ‘family size’, thus it would not be ideal to consume in a group. As Food Geeks, we would advise against consuming this as an individual meal (remember, portion control!). The saturated fats and sodium content are high, as one serving (1/5 of the pizza) has 24% and 21% respectively of your daily intake already. If eaten in one sitting, you will have consumed more than your daily value of these nutrients just in one meal (and 1100 calories)!

Rating: 1.5/5

Ristorante Pizza (Dr. Oetker)
Vegatale
(Nutrition Facts)

As this is sold as a premium, gourmet pizza, you cannot skimp on the calories here. The sodium and saturated fat content is quite high per serving, so again this is another product to share, not to consume all in one sitting. Something unique is that sour cream is one of the ingredients listed - that will be interesting for the palate! Otherwise, nothing is out of the ordinary in its ingredients.

Rating: 2.0/5

Stouffer's Lean Cuisine (Nestle Foods)
Roasted Vegetable Pizza
(Nutrition Facts)

You want good nutrition and a reasonable serving size? Then this is your product here. All in all this is a complete package of nutrition satisfaction for a meal – reasonable values for all nutrients, plus a good source of calcium. (But really, you can say that for all of these products because of the cheese.)

Rating: 5/5

Delissio Balance (Kraft Foods)
Roasted Vegetable and Feta
Nutrition Facts (Per 1/2 pizza - 167g)
330 Calories
9g Fat (4g saturated fats)
15 mg Cholesterol
1010mg Sodium
48 g Carbohydrate
16g Protein

In this instance, looks can be deceiving. You pick up this product and read that it has a whole wheat crust, claims of a high source of fibre, so this should be a healthy choice. Looking at the finer details, by just eating half the pizza, there’s 42% of your salt intake for the day – yikes. The ingredients list something called disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate – just a fancier name for flavour enhancers. They are used in conjunction with MSG in food products. So you start to think…if they need these, they must need the flavour boost to improve the taste (or even add ) of this "healthy alternative".

Rating: 2.5/5

Lean Cuisine wins this round, but how will it fare in the taste test? Is the taste compromised when you choose a healthier alternative?

THE TASTE FACTOR

Delissio Thin Crust Pizza (Kraft Foods)
Roasted Vegetable
$8.79 at Dominion (Church and Gould Streets, Toronto)

Everyone agreed that there was a generous amount of toppings on this pizza, and that the toppings were evenly distributed throughout. There was a large variety of toppings: zucchini, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, and onion. The toppings were colourful and featured grill marks. Most agreed that there was no distinct aroma – only Sergeant Pepper detected a slight green pepper smell, while Mssrs Pepper and Shortcake both described a light “stale fireplace” smell. The crust was described as crispy and airy but nothing else on the pizza had any discernable texture. Everyone agreed that this pizza had no distinct flavour. Despite the variety and amount of toppings, no one could distinguish red peppers from zucchini from cheese. Black pepper was used very liberally and that was all that anyone could taste. Mr. Shortcake aptly described the taste as “one-dimensional.” The black pepper flavour also dominated the aftertaste – the black pepper flavour simply lingered on the palate. Sergeant Pepper found the aftertaste to be “styrofoamy.”

Average Taste Score: 1.75/5


Ristorante Pizza (Dr. Oetker)
Vegatale
$6.59 at Dominion (Church and Gould Streets, Toronto)

Everyone agreed that the pizza had a generous amount of toppings that were evenly distributed. The colours of the vegetables on the pizza were very bright and fresh-looking. Pizza toppings included: red bell peppers, green bell peppers, tomatoes, and onion. Some of the toppings could be detected in the aroma, mainly onions and green peppers. Texture of the pizza was soggy at the centre, but the edge crust remained crisp. Sergeant Pepper described the edge crust as “styrofoamy” and some commented on the strange creamy texture that the dabs of sour cream on the pizza imparted. All of the different vegetables on the pizza were distinguishable in flavour, including the cheese. Strawberry Shortcake excitedly exclaimed, “The cheese tastes like cheese!” The aftertaste left a slightly peppery and onion-y aftertaste.

Average Taste Score: 3.75/5


Stouffer's Lean Cuisine (Nestle Foods)
Roasted Vegetable Pizza
$3.99 at Dominion (Church and Gould Streets, Toronto)

Of the four pizzas, this was the only one that was microwaveable (in fact, there were no instructions for any other preparation method). The ingredients were microscopic but evenly distributed and bright in colour. Veggies did not look roasted. The aroma featured oregano and cheese prominently – Mssrs Pepper and Shortcake were pleasantly surprised by the aroma, saying, “it actually smells like pizza!” Everyone agreed that the crust had a “Wonderbread” feel, sticking to the roof of the mouth. No one liked the crust. Flavour-wise, everyone agreed that there was a sugary flavour to it, but other than the parmesan, none of the ingredients had a distinguishable flavour. Mr. Strawberry Shortcake likened the flavour to “Pizza Pockets”, another popular frozen pizza snackfood. The Food Geeks agreed that the aftertaste was “cardboardy.”

Average Taste Score: 1.875/5


Delissio Balance (Kraft Foods)
Roasted Vegetable and Feta
$4.99 at Dominion (Church and Gould Streets, Toronto)

This pizza’s appearance was absolutely not appetizing. The toppings were all a brown and indistinguishable from one another, as well as scant and concentrated at the centre of the pizza. There was way too much crust and very little in the way of toppings. The pizza smelled like whole wheat bread, but not much else. Thankfully the pizza tasted better than it looked, though not by much. The whole wheat crust gave the pizza a fresh-baked bread flavour. However, the remainder of the flavour was dominated by heavy amounts of salt and black pepper, and the toppings simply tasted of salt. The black pepper flavour was extreme and lingered on the palate.

Average Taste Score: 1.875/5


OVERALL COMMENTS AND SCORES
Both of the healthy choices in frozen pizza ended up with “middle of the pack” scoring in taste, significantly behind Dr. Oetker’s Ristorante Pizza. Thus, from a taste perspective, the Food Geeks can’t really recommend one healthy pizza over another.

Health-wise, Lean Cuisine edges out Delissio's Balance in all nutrition catergories but one. Delissio’s Balance is made with a whole wheat crust, which makes this pizza a better source of dietary fibre. Additionally, Lean Cuisine’s pizza is portion controlled, which is a definite bonus for those who have difficulties judging portion sizes. With a side salad, Lean Cuisine's pizza can be a healthy meal.

Alternatively, you can share Dr. Oetker’s pizza among four people (always add a salad to round out the meal), for significantly better flavour without overdoing fat and calorie intake. Certaintly it won't be as healthy an alternative as Lean Cuisine, but keep in mind that it should be a "sometimes", and not an everyday meal. You can still indulge or splurge periodically, but you have to be aware of when and what you want to indulge in, and where you should cut back. Just remember to make intelligent choices for your meals!

Final Ratings (Health + Average Taste Scores):
Delissio Thin Crust, Roasted Vegetable: 3.3/10
Ristorante Pizza, Vegetale: 6.0/10
Lean Cuisine, Roasted Vegetable: 6.9/10
Delissio Balance, Roasted Vegetable and Feta: 4.4/10