How the thinnest pizzas are sometimes the unhealthiest

Thin crusts are not necessarily a healthier option when it comes to pizzas.

Seemingly indulgent deep pan alternatives offered by supermarkets and takeaway firms can in fact contain less fat or salt, a survey of cheese and pepperoni pizzas shows.

So, for example, Tesco’s Italian Romana Margherita – with an ‘ultra thin’ base – contains twice as much fat per 100g as the store’s Trattoria Verdi Deep Pan Cheese pizza.

Thin end of the wedge: Although thin crust pizzas may appear healthier than their deep crust cousins, their toppings can be saturated in fat and salt

Perhaps surprisingly, frozen pizzas also tend to be healthier than supermarkets’ fresh ones, the researchers found.

The most calories in a store’s cheese and tomato pizza are found in a Tesco fresh Cheese Feast deep crust pizza – at 310 per 100g.

This is 57 per cent more than the 197 in a Waitrose frozen Organic Thin and Crispy Italian Stonebake Margherita.

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The findings come from consumer experts at Which?, who want clear labelling on supermarkets’ packaging and takeaway firms’ websites to help pizza-lovers choose healthy options.

They also found that a Dr Oetker’s Chicago Town Edge to Edge Thin & Crispy California Cheese pizza contains more fat than any similar product, including those from Domino’s and Pizza Hut. It delivers an artery-clogging 15.9g of fat per 100g.

But the unhealthiest overall is a takeaway meat pizza from Domino’s. Its Pepperoni Passion Thin Crust has 356 calories and 19.1g of fat per 100g.

A Which? spokesman said: ‘We found an enormous and often unrealistic range of portion sizes and different front-of-pack nutrition labelling schemes – even by the same manufacturer – making it very difficult to compare products.’