Pizza Fun Facts

Source: http://pizza.com/fun-facts

Pizza Fun Facts

1. The average pizzeria uses roughly 55 pizza boxes per day.

2. We consume around 251,770,000 pounds of pepperonis every year.

3. Some popular pizza toppings in Japan are squid and Mayo Jaga (mayonaise, potato and bacon).

4. The highest-grossing single-unit independent pizzeria in the nation, Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria, is in Anchorage , Alaska. Its annual sales are approximately $6 million.

5. Pizzerias are expected to purchase more than $4 billion worth of cheese annually by the year 2010

6. 36 percent of all pizza orders want their pizza topping pepperoni

7. 94 percent of Americans eat pizza regularly

8. And that is precisely why the top 5 pizza sales days are: Super Bowl Sunday, New Year's Eve, Halloween, The night before Thanksgiving, & New Year's Day

9. 93 percent of Americans have eaten pizza in the last month

10. Pizza accounts for more than 10 percent of all food service sales

11. On Super Bowl Sunday, pizza delivery drivers can expect $2 tips to sometimes soar as high as $20

12. Domino's delivery drivers will log about 4 million miles on Super Bowl Sunday Delivery sales of pizza spike the most during close Super Bowl games

13. Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza a day or about 350 slices per second.

14. There are approximately 61,269 pizzerias in the United States.

15. Each person in America eats about 46 pizza slices a year.

16. Popular gourmet toppings are chicken, oysters, crayfish, dandelions, sprouts, eggplant, cajun shrimp, artichoke hearts, and tuna.

17. October is the US national pizza month.

18. Over 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year.

19. Kids ages 3 to 11 prefer pizza over all other food groups for lunch and dinner.

20. Pizza.comes from the latin root word Picea which means the blackening of crust by fire.

21. The largest pizza ever made was 122 ft. 8 in. in diameter. The pizza needed 9,920 lb of flour, 198 lb of salt, 3968 lb of cheese, and 1,984 lb of tomato puree

22. Italian is the most popular type of Ethnic food in America

23. Domino's Pizza is the world leader in delivery

24. Regular thin crust is most popular in America, it is preferred by 61% of the population, 14% prefer deep-dish, and 11% prefer extra thin crust

25. 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings while 38% prefer vegetables

26. Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetables on their pizza

27. Pizza Hut has 12,583 stores in over 90 countries

28. Saturday night is the most popular night to eat pizza

29. Pizza Deliverers claim women are better tippers

30. During TV news, pizza is most often ordered during the weather

31. There is a Pizza Expo held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada

32. Pizzerias represent 17% of all restaurants

33. The world's fastest pizza maker can make 14 pizza in 2 minutes and 35 seconds

34. 36% of people consider pizza the perfect breakfast

35. Eating pizza once a week can reduce the risk of esophageal cancer

36. The longest pizza delivery was from Cape Town, South Africa to Sydney, Australia

37. Cristian Dumitru of Romania holds the world record for eating pizza, he ate over 200 pounds. But the former world record holder claims the cheese-sauce ratio was too low for what he ate to be considered pizza.

38. In Italy there is a bill before Parliament to safeguard the traditional Italian pizza, specifying permissible ingredients and methods of processing (e.g., excluding frozen pizzas). Only pizzas which followed these guidelines could be called "traditional Italian pizzas", at least in Italy.

39. The largest pizza ever made 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 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.

40. Most expensive pizza created was made by the restaurateur Domenico Crolla who created a $2,745.00 priced Valentine pizza which included toppings such as sunblush-tomato sauce, Scottish smoked salmon, medallions of venison, edible gold, lobster marinated in the finest cognac and champagne-soaked caviar What has been called "the world's most extravagant pizza" is available at New York's Nino's  Bellissima restaurant. Topped with six varieties of caviar, chives, fresh lobster and creme fraiche, this 12-inch pie, called the "Luxury Pizza," retails at $1,000.00 (or $125.00 a slice).

41. About 3 billion pizzas are sold annually in the U.S.

42. Mozzarella cheese accounts for nearly 80 percent of Italian cheese production in the United States.

43. The most popular pizza size in the U.S. today is 14 inches in diameter.