What’s top of your toppings? An update
Throughout last autumn, hundreds of our Co-op members joined in to pass their thoughts about pizza onto our chefs.
We set out on a quest to understand where members sit on the great crust debate, which toppings they love and those ingredients believed should forever be banished.
1,385 members completed our online survey and over 100 took the time to leave some great comments on our blog post.
Here’s what we learned
- On average, members declared their love of pizza to be an enamoured 8.4 out of 10
- Whilst there was a marginal preference for restaurant and take-away pizzas, almost a third gave a thumbs up to shop-bought pizzas from the chiller – with plenty citing Co-op offerings as their favourites
- Favourite pizzas are most likely to be topped with cheese, pepperoni, chicken, ham and mushroom
- However, ‘must have’ toppings were tomato sauce and onions
- Pineapple, anchovies, meat, fish and olives were among our members’ least favourite toppings
- Freshness, choice, quality, convenience and price are key to what make our members’ favourite pizzas great
- Thin crust was the most preferred, over thick crust
- Members called for us to develop DIY pizzas and free-from pizzas too
- Olives, chicken, peppers and mushrooms are the ‘Marmite’ of pizza toppings – loved and loathed equally
What’s next?
Our next steps are to start working on some ideas and to ask a smaller number of members to get involved in something a bit different like an at-home pizza party for them and their friends. We’ll have more details to follow, so keep checking Join In.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what we heard from members. Does the general member view of pizza chime with yours, or do you love nothing more than pineapple and anchovies on a thick crust? Add a comment below.
Don’t forget there are lots more ways for you to Join in with your Co-op just log into your account for more details.
Sara Gunn
Chilled Food Buyer
I would love to see more veggie options as they are very limited in choice. I love Margarita pizza but would welcome the option for separate toppings eg sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, feta cheese, Broccoli, roasted peppers and even pineapple!
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To co op food,
Is there any chance of you stocking frozen onions like the other supermarkets do?
You have every other frozen veg but not onions?
I always put extra topping such as onions on my co op bought pizzas.
Hoping you will start selling them? : )
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We liked the limited edition one you once did, it was a Hot dog stuffed crust with cheese and gherkin topped pizza. Yum!
Please can we have that one again?
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Please a veggie option more exciting than Margherita!
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Love the idea of diy pizza
And I like to buy gluten free plus I can’t eat rice either please can you create gluten free and rice free pizza.
Becausemost of gluten free stuff have rice flour mixed in.
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I have to say it’s anchovies and olives everytime for me!
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Me too Andy! ^SB
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My girls have asked me to make them a gluten free cheesy stuffed crust pizza because they can’t get one anywhere else. It’s really beyond my expertise so please consider it!! I love mascarpone cheese on pizza. A fried halloumi, tomato and basil pizza is also gorgeous. My girls like Ham on one side and pineapple on the other side so build your own is a great idea. At the moment we either make or buy a margherita gluten free base and then add our own at home.
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Now our local co-op has discontinued gluten free pizzas. So one of my girls can have pizza and the others can’t unless we make the dough ourselves. Your long life GF pizza bases taste like cardboard.
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I love pizza especially the sourdough crusts! I am slightly against the grain because I LOVE pineapple, HATE pepperoni and don’t think you need tomato sauce on a pizza to make it delicious. I am definitely with the majority on the cheese front though!!
We love making our own pizzas at home so if there was a quick and easy way to make your own (without having to remember you put the bread maker on) that would be fab!
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You’re making me hungry Catriona! :o) ^SB
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If you could make pizza bases gluten free by default that would make it much easier for many people, I love Chorizo and red peppers and mushrooms. That would be a great Pizza for me. 🍕
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Which store is your local? ^SB
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Slaithwaite
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We miss the stuffed crust cheese feast pizza – it’s disappeared from our shop.
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Love the idea of mixing your own toppings, I would like to see a BBQ base one as well as a pesto based pizza.
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Great suggestions Sarah! ^SB
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One of the loveliest pizzas I ever ate was in a little Italian restaurant in Chester. It was a seafood pizza, complete with prawns, anchovies and tuna as well as the usual tomato and cheese topping. I eat a lot of pizza and no-one has ever been able to better that one.
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Would you like a fish variety in store? :o) ^SB
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You could invent a pizza without cheese? ^SB
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One does not care for pizza as one does not eat cheese.
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Great article!!! Throw a vegan pizza into the mix too! ❤️
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What toppings would you have Gem? :o) ^SB
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Hear, hear, Gem – and if that base could be gluten free too my life would be soooo much easier.
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Please can you bring back the Kashmiri chicken pizza? I know a lot of people who are missing it
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We’ll get this fed back for you Sara! It was a lovely pizza! :o) ^SB
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By DIY pizza do you mean:
1. buy a margarita
2. pick 2,3,4,.. little chilled pouches of extra toppings on the shelf next to it (e.g. salami, those little spicy peppers, pesto, mushrooms, etc)
3. pimp your pizza at home
4. cook
Thats amazing! Needs to be a deal though.
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Imagine if the toppings could be bought separately too, then people could use them as sandwich fillers as well as pizza toppers! Would certainly add a little zing to egg mayonaise. Though it would be very important to ensure packaging materials could be easily recycled anywhere in the country.
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This idea was first mooted by Daniel Hunt, and I went on to make a suggestion:
JANET LEES
NOVEMBER 3, 2016 AT 11:24 AM
Yep, you could have a “pizza station” where there are frozen basic bases (base plus sauce, whether it be tomato or BBQ etc), next to a section of bags of frozen topping items. Sale offer could be 1 base plus up to 4 toppings for £4.99, extra topping bags 50p/£1 each depending on if veg or meat. So you could have different toppings, or double up, or even treble up, on your fave toppings. Get home, stick oven on, put your toppings on as you like, heat it up, et voila! Your perfect pizza 🙂
It’s this sort of thing that needs developing.
I’d love to be involved more by taking part in focus groups or giving more feedback to help Co-op develop this idea.
It’d be a first for a supermarket to offer and would be great for marketing.
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I’m a fan of pineapple on pizzas, especially if it’s a spicy pizza!
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Me too! :o) ^Scott
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Personally I love anchovies on a pizza.
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Me too! That’s why I’d love a pizza pick n mix…
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It is a shame that several of the things the majority don’t like seem to be some of the healthiest! Anchovies and olives are really good for you! I am always concerned about buying inorganic meat, particularly, so I don’t go for the meaty ones. I shop a lot in the Co-op and love its policies, such a pity you don’t add to these by offering organic produce!
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