Crust Gourmet Pizza Bars has become the first take away pizza brand to offer its customers a guaranteed healthier choice with the launch of a range of six pizzas carrying the Heart Foundation Tick of approval.
The six pizzas that have earned the Tick are available as take away or delivery options from Crust’s 16 stores across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Crust Managing Director, Costa Anastasiadis said that he wanted to show the pizza industry that it is possible to offer customers healthier choices.
Australians buy over 190 million take away pizzas every year, according to BIS Shrapnel’s report Fast Food in Australia.
Crust’s Tick-approved pizzas include three meat and three vegetarian options, and contain around half the fat and saturated fat of comparable pizzas available from other outlets, and 50% to 70% less sodium, according to comparisons of values taken from competitors’ websites.
Crust’s tick-approved pizzas are Bruschetta pizza, Baby Spinach pizza, Roast Vegetable pizza, Roast Beef pizza, Roast Chicken pizza, and Chicken and Avocado pizza.
The Tick approved pizzas also contain virtually no trans fat and provide up to 80% of the recommended daily fibre intake for an adults, says Food Standards Australia New Zealand.
Susan Anderson, Food Supply Strategy Director of the Heart Foundation welcomed the commitment that Crust has shown in providing consumers with a healthier choice.
Earning the tick
To earn the Tick, Crust had to meet strict standards for saturated and trans fat, sodium, and vegetable/fibre content, and agree to be subjected to rigorous ongoing independent auditing of its outlets anywhere in Australia.
Changes Crust has implemented include introducing a new wholegrain base to increase the fibre content and switching from processed meat to fresh meat toppings to reduce both saturated fat and salt content.
“Throughout the whole process it was important to maintain the taste factor, as this is the reason why our customers keep coming back. In our opinion being healthier doesn’t mean that you have to lose the taste, and we’ve spent a lot of development time making sure we can offer healthier choice pizzas that taste great,” said Costa.
Crust Gourmet Group