Food & Beverage

Little Caesar's launches pie with plant-based pepperoni

You could call Little Caesars' Planteroni pie a "pea-za," as the pepperoni on it is made with pea protein. (Photo provided)

July 12, 2021

Plant-based pizza offerings are gaining new traction today with the largest national chain yet announcing a plant-based pepperoni pie now available in six major U.S. cities stores in the Little Caesars chain. The brand's so-called "Planteroni" pizza is made Field Roast's plant-based pepperoni and is now available in Little Caesars outlets in Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, San Francisco, Detroit and Portland, Oregon, according to a news release.

The plant-based product is available in the following items at those stores:

• Regular $8.49 Planteroni Pizza.
• $8 Slices-N-Sticks.
• Topping on a custom pizza.

"Planteroni delivers a plant-based version of the delicious flavor of America's most popular pizza topping, and you need to taste it to believe it," Little Caesars CMO Jeff Klein, said in the release. "This product is really going to surprise and delight our customers."

The brand said its data shows that 69% of customers in a recent survey indicated they would order plant-based "meat. The release said that the Field Roast product is the first pepperoni alternative on the market to be made with pea protein, instead of soy – a growing choice for such meat alternatives.

The pepperoni alternative produce is made with fennel, cracked black pepper, garlic and paprika. It debuted earlier this year and the companies said the Little Caesars menu item is its first appearance in a national pizza chain menu.

Note, however, that Little Caesars points out that the finished Planteroni pizzas are not all plant-based, only the pepperoni.

The pizza chain did not say when or if the product would be available at stores outside the six cities.