The opening of Crust’s first Queensland store coincided with the launch of its six Healthier Choice Pizzas – the first take away pizzas to earn the Heart Foundation Tick of approval.
Sam Mackinnon is co-owner of the franchise and up until now was better known as Australia’s most celebrated basketball players, captaining both the Brisbane Bullets and the Australian Beijing Olympic team.
Mackinnon says the feedback from customers on the Healthier Choice Pizzas has been fantastic, and they have become one of the most popular menu choices, with sales showing that people are demanding a healthier choice when it comes to take away food.
In the first month since launch on 12 February, Crust Hamilton sold 201 Healthier Choice pizzas. This figure continues to grow and is impressive, considering they’ve exceeded nearly half of the Healthier Choice pizza sales results from other Crust stores in Sydney and Melbourne.
Innovative ingredients & processes
For Crust to earn the Tick on its six Healthier Choice Pizzas, it had to meet strict nutritional and quality standards set by the Heart Foundation. These standards included benchmarks for fat and saturated fat, sodium and vegetable/fibre content, and involved making significant changes to Crust’s systems and processes.
Changes to ingredients to included:
- A new pizza base recipe which contains less salt, uses wholegrain flour instead of white flour, and is sweetened with honey rather than refined sugar;
- Using olive oil instead of vegetable oil throughout the pizza and ingredients preparation process;
- Sourcing Tick approved ricotta cheese to use in place of standard ricotta; and
- Using only fresh meats on the meat pizzas instead of processed meats.
The wholegrain base enables each pizza to provide up to 80% of a day’s recommended fibre intake for an adult. The switch from vegetable oil to olive oil has virtually eliminated trans fats. Using a Tick approved ricotta keeps salt and saturated fat content low; and using only fresh meats instead of processed meats helps reduce sodium content.
The new recipes were developed and ingredients selected to ensure Crust could offer a guaranteed healthier choice of pizza that still tastes great. The pizzas were in development for over 12 months and went through extensive nutritional and taste testing before the recipes were finalised.
For more information contact:
info@crust.com.au
www.crust.com.au