Novel high-quality takeaway Neapolitan pizza from unused dough balls: hedonic and textural properties, and carbon footprinting assessment

During home pizza delivery in cardboard boxes uncontrolled heat and mass transfer processes occur. This work aimed to evaluate how the textural and sensory properties change from the moment the pizza is taken out of the oven and the moment of its consumption at home. Such properties were also assessed for a novel takeaway pizza service involving pizza baking, freezing, packing, delivery and reheating at home to save leavened dough balls unused at the end of everyday working activity. Panellists preferred freshly baked pizza, but frozen pizza was more preferred over all pizzas kept in cardboard boxes for 10-30 min. The cradle-to-grave carbon footprint and cost of frozen pizza were finally assessed to show how such a food product, that would have been wasted, might be profitably converted into a high-quality alternative takeaway pizza service.