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What the best-dressed pizzas are wearing around the globe

In part 2 of this series on pizza toppings, we go to the masses for the take on what’s hot and what’s not atop pies globally.

September 20, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

While pizza experts from around the U.S. told readers Friday about this year's top pizza-toppings trends, part 2 of our series is dedicated to uncovering what the rest of the world is putting on their pizzas. It also proves that this one-time exclusively Italian dish has become the very individuated property of every country whose people have tried a piece of the pie. 

Thanks to huge international chains, like Domino’s and Pizza Hut, pizza has been introduced to just about every culture on Earth. Each culture, of course, has made the pie its very own, and guess what? Pizza really cannot be called an "Italian dish" anymore. In fact, the culture that actually eats more pizza than anybody on earth —including Italy — is at least 1,300 miles from Italy in Norway, according to a 2004 survey. 

Nonetheless, just about every country has a take on this dish. Typically, each country takes the basic idea of the original Naples-born pie and morphs it into something emblematic of the people of that nationality. The result is a literal United Nations of pizza pie. Below is a smattering of some of the offbeat possibilities around the globe these days in pizza:  

• In Japan, look for toppings like mayo sauce, corn, avocados and eel.
• In South Korea, favorite toppers are sweet potato, stir-fried chicken and chili pepper paste, shrimp, crab and corn.
• In the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, toppings included boiled eggs, cocktail sausage and mushy peas. 
• Swedes also cherish their pizza,but they prefer things like kebab meat, cole slaw, Swedish hard cheese, curried shrimp and mussels atop. 
• Scottish lads and lasses, like their pizzas deep friedand dipped in salt and vinegar, a la the U.K's infamous fish and chips. 

Pizza: Not just for junk food anymore

One of the most promising and perhaps important features to the future of pizza around the world is it’s great ability to become whatever the person consuming it wants. In the past, that has meant grease, lots of cheese and tons of salt. But in this new, more healthful world we’re entering, this former renowned "junk food" is fast becoming the little darling of the wholesome foods set. 

AsEuromonitor International contributing analyst, Simone Baroke, wrote in that company's study of the dish about two years ago, "Health and wellness-positioned pizzas are not only here to stay, but they are destined for a long-term growth trajectory," she wrote. Baroke went on to say that these types of more nutritious pizza, "have global appeal as a convenience food and one that is easy enough to 'healthify.' … Another anticipated development is an increasing number of brand extensions (like) healthy pizza launches by organic and natural players not previously involved in the pizza category."

Even the American Institute for Cancer Research sees the potential in the product for this kind of development. On its website, a recipe is published for rice pizza crust, which according to its dietitians can be a great health-promoting replacement for wheat flour crusts and that when combined with fresh vegetable toppings, this kind of pizza can truly be labeled today’s new health food

"Fresh vegetable toppings," states the recipe for rice pizza crust on the organization’s website, "are also a smart substitute for fatty or processed meat toppings that contain dangerous nitrosamines."

Whether the downright dangerous andcarcinogenic reputation that preserved meats like, pepperoni, got late last year from the World Health Organization, actually begins to dissuade the public from that all-time favorite topping choice, remains to be seen. But the health food trend underway across food service could be a great opportunity for pizza restaurateurs to open up their businesses to a whole new, untapped audience of diners.

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.