Food manufacturers are under increasing pressure to deliver higher output with fewer resources and tighter margins. In pizza production, processes that were once straightforward can quickly become sources of inefficiency, inconsistency, and waste. This is where European Process Plant Ltd (EPP) provides practical, experience-led solutions, helping manufacturers simplify everyday operations while maintaining quality, flexibility, and control.
Pizza began as a simple, adaptable food shaped by necessity in 18th-century southern Italy, where poverty meant meals had to be fast, filling, and affordable. Street vendors sold slices topped with basic ingredients such as garlic and salt, or cheese and basil, cutting portions larger or smaller to match what each customer could afford. Today, producers face a very different challenge, delivering that same flexibility and broad appeal at industrial scale, while maintaining absolute consistency and efficiency.
Changing Tastes and Flavours
In today’s world, Pizza comes in many variations, shaped by regional styles, changing tastes, and modern food trends. The traditional crispy Neapolitan, Sicilian, pizza Romana and American style deep pan bases have been joined by rediscovered variations such as Stracciatella and Pinsa, offering unique textures, shapes and eating qualities. And the days of all pizzas being round are over as rectangular and pizza sold by the cut square are growing in popularity.
Current trends focus on artisanal doughs, fermented sourdough bases, gluten-free crusts, and vegan cheeses, reflecting increased attention to quality, dietary needs, and sustainability.
EPP: A Trusted Partner
Working with trusted equipment partners, EPP supports UK and Irish pizza producers across the full production journey, from small batch operations to high-throughput industrial lines. EPP can help advise on modular lines designed to allow manufacturers to adapt processes as product ranges evolve, while maintaining high hygiene standards and efficient cleaning regimes.
EPP provides flexible dough handling solutions, including pressing and delicate sheet forming with integrated cutting and trim waste recycling to minimise waste.
Topping applications can be tailored to the product, with sauces, meats, vegetables, and cheeses applied before or after baking. Sauce deposition is achieved using spray or volumetric systems, with optional spreading for a spoon-spread appearance, while particulate toppings are applied using target or waterfall systems to ensure uniform coverage and product consistency.
From mixing to dough production, topping and depositing through to baking, cooling and packaging and the finished product, EPP can supply bespoke solutions to meet the customers product needs.
Steve Merritt, Managing Director of EPP added, “By focusing on practical, repeatable ways of working, EPP helps organisations reduce complexity, improve consistency, and support production teams in delivering reliable results day after day.
To find out more about EPP’s wide range of bakery equipment solutions, please visit www.eppltd.co.uk.