The USDA Estimates 13% Of Americans Eat Pizza Every Day (+28 More Fun Facts)

National Pizza Day on February 9th celebrates one of America’s all-time favorite foods. Whether it is thin crust, Chicago-style, deep dish or anything in between, pizza is an American favorite.

• Pepperoni is the most popular pizza at 36% of all pies ordered.
• Over 3 billion pizzas are sold in the USA each year.  Add another 1 billion on frozen pizzas
• There are 70,000 pizzerias in the U.S. — over 17% of all restaurants.
•  Antica Pizzeria, the first Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy, in 1738.
•  Gennaro Lombardi, the first Pizzeria in the United States, opened in 1895 in New York City.
• Americans consume on average 23 pounds of pizza per person each year.
• Americans order 350 slices of pizza every second.
• The average pizza place uses roughly 55 pizza boxes per day.
• We consume around 251,770,000 pounds of pepperonis every year. 
• 93 percent of Americans have eaten pizza in the last month.
• Kids ages 3 to 11 prefer pizza over all other food groups
• Saturday is the most popular night to eat pizza.
• Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetarian toppings on their pizza.
• The word “pizza“ dates back over 1000 years. The first known documentation of the word is in a Latin text from 997 C.E.
•  61% of people prefer thin crust.
• Roughly 1,000 years ago herb-and-spice-covered circles of baked dough grew exceptionally popular in Naples, Italy. Known as focaccia, these rounds were served as an appetizer or a snack.
• Each year, thousands of people involved in the pizza industry attend Pizza Expo, the world’s largest pizza-only trade show. Pizza Expo is held each year in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Pizza accounts for more than 10 percent of all food service sales.
• Italian is the most popular type of ethnic food in america.
• 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings while 38% prefer vegetables.
• The first American cities to start selling pizza were New York, Boston, New Haven, Conn., and Trenton, N.J. all four of these cities had an influx of southern italian immigrants around the turn of the century.
• At first, pizzas were sold exclusively by the pie. But in 1933, Patsy Iancieri (of patsy’s pizzeria in New York City) started selling pizza by the slice—a trend that was quickly picked up by other pizzerias.
• The first frozen pizza hit the market in 1962. It mostly tasted like cardboard until the genius food inventor Rose Totino got her hands on it.
• There’s a pizza museum in Philadelphia called Pizza Brain that is home to the world’s largest collection of pizza memorabilia.
• One of the biggest days for pizzerias around the country is Super Bowl Sunday. Pizza is a major staple to this sports event, with an average of 2,500,000 pizzas being sold just from Pizza Hut alone.
• According to the United States Department of Agriculture, about 13 percent of Americans eat pizza daily.
• According to a study conducted by the USDA, pizza is an extremely popular meal choice among men. It’s most popular demographic is among males ages 6-19 years, since more than 1 in 4 of them consume pizza on any day.
• A typical daily pizza serving accounts for more than half of our lycopene diet.  Lycopene, which is an antioxidant that has been proven to help prevent cancer and heart disease in a study published by the Annual Review of Food Science and Technology, is prominent in pizza. This is mainly due to the tomato sauce in pizza since tomatoes are known to have a naturally high concentration of the antioxidant.
• NASA funded & tested a 3D printer that can make pizza for astronauts.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Foodimentary

Sweety High

Pizza Need

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