For a frozen pizza brand to stand out, it has to go beyond simple crust, sauce, and cheese.
DiGiorno did just that as its rising crust pizza quickly took over the market. Keep watching to
discover what you need to know about one of the most popular frozen pizzas around.
DiGiorno originated as a product of its time. Frozen pizza started appearing in
grocery stores in the northeastern United States in the early 1950s,
thanks to the common household refrigerator. One of the first pieces of historical evidence
of the product was a patent granted in 1954 to a man named Joseph Bucci.
Within the decade, the New England trend had spread throughout the country.
Then in the 60s, Rose Totino stepped into the game.
And then came the Red Baron line in the 1970s. But soon enough,
DiGiorno arrived and quickly eclipsed the rest of the frozen pizza section of most grocery stores.
Kraft launched DiGiorno in 1995 and it quickly became a hit with the promise of that rising
crust. And it could indeed pass for delivery, just like the famous ad campaign promised.
"For fresh-baked pizza at home, it's not delivery, it's DiGiorno."
In 2018, USA Today reported that DiGiorno was the best-selling frozen pizza on the planet,
as it accounted for nearly half the sales in the industry.
Things continued to progress for DiGiorno into the 21st century. In 2010, the brand was
acquired by Nestlé. The purchase was actually a strategic move by the Swiss multinational,
as it had had only a small presence in North America's frozen pizza game before that point.
The company also owned Stouffer's French Bread Pizza, but this movie promised to take things
to another level, as the acquisition of DiGiorno also enabled Nestlé the
opportunity to leverage some rather significant pizza-making know-how in the European market.
New corporate ownership wasn't the only change for DiGiorno at that time, as certain ingredients
had to be manipulated for them to be within compliance of Nestlé's nutritional standards.
In particular, the sodium levels were off the charts, and the dough was the culprit.
According to the American Heart Association, nine out of 10 Americans consume too much sodium, and
more than 70 percent of that comes from processed and restaurant foods. A high sodium diet may cause
puffiness, bloating, and weight gain, and it can also put people at risk for osteoporosis, stroke,
heart failure, and even stomach cancer. DiGiorno pizza had an above-average sodium content in its
crust, which was caused by the baking powder that Kraft used for the signature rising dough.
"Sodium." "Well, if you don't know anything about sodium now,
I don't know what else we can do for ya."
After Nestlé acquired DiGiorno, Nestlé executive Paul Bakus and his team
created a pepperoni pizza with 10 percent less sodium. At a tasting, he couldn't notice any
difference with the new version, but pepperoni lovers could. As the sodium problem persisted,
Nestlé went on to try other solutions. They toyed with the idea of replacing sodium chloride,
or table salt, with the similar compound potassium chloride.
They also began featuring portion control guidance on its packaging.
We've yet to get into the nitty-gritty of cheese, and it's possible that DiGiorno prefers it that
way, as it wasn't all that long ago that their cheese made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
In 2013, the animal rights group Mercy for Animals released an undercover video that
featured severe animal abuse at Wiese Brothers' Farm in Greenleaf, Wisconsin.
The video included footage of cows being beaten and stabbed before being dragged by a tractor.
This was bad news for frozen pizza fans as it turned out that the farm supplied the cheese
for Nestle pizzas, including DiGiorno. At the time, Nestlé spokesperson Deborah Cross
said that the company was dedicated to the humane treatment of animals.
The company quickly cut off its supply of Wiese farm cheese. In a statement, the Wiese family
said that it was "shocked and saddened" by the video. Today, the mozzarella used on DiGiorno
pizza is still 100 percent sourced from the Midwest, but not from this particular farm.
If there's one perfect food to pair with pizza, it might just be chicken wings.
Boneless wings have been slowly stealing the spotlight from its more traditional brethren,
so much so that in 2011 DiGiorno introduced its Pizza & Boneless Wyngz combo box.
The spelling of "wyngz" with a "y" and a "z" isn't just a matter of the marketing department's effort
to be cool. It's actually government-mandated by the United States Department of Agriculture,
as this product does not in fact contain any meat from a chicken's wing.
As it turns out, wyngz are a chicken fritter product, which means they're made with white-meat
chicken, but not necessarily wing-meat chicken. DiGiorno had even more rules to follow in addition
to the spelling requirement. This included that the product must contain white meat and the word
"wyngz" had to be in the same color font and not hidden inconspicuously on the packaging.
Getting even weirder and more specific, the smallest letter in "wyngz"
could not be more than one-third smaller than the largest letter in the name.
DiGiorno goes under a different name in the frozen food section of the frozen north,
and that name is Delissio. Nestlé owns both brand names, as the two came together in a package deal,
and Kraft had been selling frozen pizza in Canada as Delissio as far back as the '80s.
When Nestlé took over in 2010, they decided to keep the alternate brand name instead of pulling
a switcheroo on an entire country. But there's no need to look into any dual citizenship options,
as Delissio offers the same features as its American counterpart.
It's known for its rise-in-the-oven crust, and it uses the same marketing language.
That means that north of the border, the commercials end with:
"It's not delivery, it's Delissio." The best part of Delissio might
just be its cheerful website, which spouts off Canada-specific facts like:
"40 million DELISSIO pizzas are sliced at Canadian pizza nights every year!"
and, "Nestlé is a proud partner of Food Banks Canada."
DiGiorno likes to have its fun on the internet. There was that time in 2013 when the brand
live-tweeted NBC's airing of The Sound of Music Live! They also clap back at other brands,
joke around with customers, and just put random thoughts out into the Twittersphere, such as,
"Pizza sauce a blood type?"
But in September 2014, the brand really misread the room. In the wake of NFL running back Ray
Rice's assault on his then-fiancee, the hashtags #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft
were being used on Twitter to have a conversation about domestic violence
and for people to share their stories of abuse and survival. Then DiGiorno chimed in with,
"#WhyIStayed You had pizza."
Angry responses arrived swiftly, with many accusing the brand of shameless promotion.
As it turns out, the social media team just hadn't looked into the hashtag's meaning.
They then tried to explain the misstep by tweeting,
"A million apologies. Did not read what the hashtag was about before posting."
Nestlé spokesperson Roz O'Hearn later released a statement that said,
"This tweet was a mistake, quickly realized as such and deleted seconds later.
Our community manager — and the entire DiGiorno team — is truly
sorry. The tweet does not reflect our values and we've been personally
responding to everyone who has engaged with us on social media. We apologize."
Indiana is known for many things. Its capital is the great city of Indianapolis. It's the home
state of NBA legend Larry Bird. And there was also that time that a Little Caesars
in the town of Griffith was accused of serving DiGiorno pizzas. In 2018, a man named Vincent
Romero recorded a video of a shopping cart of DiGiorno frozen pizzas behind the counter
at a K-Mart location of Little Caesars. He then posted it on Twitter with the caption,
"This can't be happening right in front of me."
The video was eventually viewed over 4 million times on Twitter. Ultimately,
the issue was cleared up when Kmart spokeswoman Jill Proctor told media outlets that Kmart was
disposing expired DiGiorno pizzas when the video was shot. In a statement, Proctor said,
"Of course, Little Caesars only serves freshly baked pizzas made from fresh dough.
After some investigating, it turns out that what appeared in this video was a funny coincidence."
Regardless of the reason behind this incident, it turned everyone into quite the comedian.
DiGiorno itself responded to the original tweet with,
"We're just as curious as you."
Little Caesars then got in on the action two days later by joking,
"Apparently, this store has a trade-in program."
To which DiGiorno replied,
"Two days to come up with that? Really?"
Besides its rising crust feature, DiGiorno is best known for its tagline,
"It's not delivery. It's DiGiorno."
It's been featured in countless commercials, and it's still stamped proudly on the top of
its packaging. But has the slogan changed over time? While the wording has stayed the same,
has the attitude behind it been altered a bit?
A 2019 Eater article examined these questions by arguing that DiGiorno's slogan has undergone a
natural progression as the pizza delivery concept has lost a bit of its shine.
Gone are the days when parents leaving their kids a couple of $20 bills to order pizza was
something to get excited about. We can now order just about any food we want thanks to third-party
delivery apps. Pizza delivery at this point is so common that we pretty much take it for granted.
To brag that something isn't delivery isn't saying much anymore. Thus DiGiorno has had to
be more hard-hitting with its message to keep up. One particular 2013 commercial features an
insanely irresponsible delivery driver, and slightly alters the famed catchphrase to:
"Thankfully it's not delivery, it's DiGiorno."
DiGiorno may still be using its same old slogan,
even though delivery isn't the measurement of pizza perfection anymore.
DiGiorno offers a handful of vegetarian options, and it recently decided to take things one step
further. In December 2019, it was reported that a pizza topped with a meat alternative would be
released in spring 2020 in tandem with another Nestlé product, Stouffer's Meatless Lasagna.
Both products were set to feature Awesome Grounds, a plant-based meat substitute created by the
company Sweet Earth. Awesome Grounds is made from yellow pea protein, wheat gluten, and canola and
coconut oils. It's textured to resemble ground beef and holds 16 grams of protein and 4 grams
of fiber per serving. Nestlé Foods Division President John Carmichael said in a statement,
"There's no denying the current modern food movement is revolutionizing the plant-based space.
By adding Sweet Earth Awesome Grounds to Stouffer's and DiGiorno offerings,
we're able to offer our customers the chance to incorporate plant-based meals into their diets
while still enjoying the same convenience and delicious flavor of brands they know and trust."
While the Awesome Grounds pizza is a great option for vegetarians, it isn't fully vegan,
as it still contains mozzarella cheese. On behalf of all the vegans who love frozen pizza,
here's hoping that DiGiorno is looking into some cheese replacement possibilities.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, frozen pizza has become
a freezer staple and Digiorno's sales have risen accordingly.
"People have started buying up all the frozen pizza."
Nestlé has reportedly seen its frozen food products increase steadily in popularity because
of lockdown orders. By May 16, 2020, Americans had spent more than $15.5 billion in the past eleven
weeks on frozen food at the grocery store, a 40.2 percent increase from the same period in 2019.
Additionally, Nielsen data showed that sales of freezer units were also up. In April,
they had increased by 195 percent compared to the same period the previous year.
This is likely due to restaurant closures worldwide, as well as shoppers desiring comfort
food as the virus spreads. Even Nestlé Food Division President John Carmichael is impressed as
he's seen DiGiorno's sales spike upward over the course of several months. He told CNN Business,
"It's a robust category that is getting the biggest trial event in its history."
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