A BAD YEAR FOR FROZEN PIZZA

I don't recall as bad a year for frozen pizza as 2013 in the U.S. And, and we aren't even half-way through the year yet. It's enough to make you give up eating pizza. That would put you in the minority of the American population. According to the website "Fun Facts" 94 percent of Americans eat pizza regularly and on the average, each American eats about 46 pizza slices a year.

The most recent pizza recall is by Nestle. Nestle has recalled specific production codes/dates of CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN or DIGIORNO pizzas. They were distributed nationwide. The reason - bits of plastic in the pizzas, which apparently entered with the spinach that was used.

And here we were, thinking that eating veggies like spinach on your pizza made it more healthy! By the way - also according to Fun Facts, women are more likely to order or buy pizza with vegetables than are men.

Back to the pizza recalls this year. Nestle has not been the only pizza distributor with problems. At the end of March this year, Farm Rich Corporation had to recall Farm Rich frozen mini pizza slices and Farm Rich mozzarella bites in a pizzeria style crust because of discovery of E.coli 0121 bacteria. Overall, I guess those were worse. Biting into bits of plastic may chip your tooth or scratch your throat, but if you ate the E.coli with your pizza, you could end up in hospital.

And that's not all the frozen Pizza woes for the year. Back in January, Annie's Homegrown Inc., of Berkeley California, also recalled a lot of their frozen pizzas. They said the cause was "extraneous materials." They were certainly "extraneous" - bits of metal in the dough are not a normal ingredient. They came from the flour that was used: problems with equipment at the flour mill.

Let's hope that is the end of the pizza problems for the year. But don't hold your breath.

To your good health,

TSF