Retailers Express Interest in Stocking Seaweed-Based “Healthy Pizza”

The team says its new creation contains 30% of an adult's guideline daily amount of vitamins and minerals. They are also said to have a third of the recommended amount of calories, protein and carbohydrate. The pizzas were created by Mike Lean, of Glasgow University, and businessman Donnie Maclean.

3 Jul 2012 --- A Scottish nutritionist has teamed up with an entrepreneur to produce a pizza product that is “nutritionally balanced”.

The team says its new creation contains 30% of an adult's guideline daily amount of vitamins and minerals. They are also said to have a third of the recommended amount of calories, protein and carbohydrate.

The pizzas were created by Mike Lean, of Glasgow University, and businessman Donnie Maclean.

One major British supermarket chain has already indicated it will stock the healthy pizzas, and Mr Maclean is in talks with other supermarkets and catering suppliers.

Prof Lean said he got the idea be studying ready meals in Scottish supermarkets: “common foods eaten in huge numbers - and they're hopelessly unbalanced. They contain as much salt as you should have in a whole day or more. They contain as much saturated fat as you should have in a whole day or more. The nutrients we need every day are absent from these meals. Nobody has thought about it. So I got together with Donnie to try to do this."

Mr Maclean helped Prof Lean come up with unusual ways of incorporating more nutrients into a pizza. He said: "I researched the market and found that seaweed was an interesting new ingredient being used in artisan bread.

"So we used that as a way of reducing the salt level. The sodium content of seaweed is about 3.5% compared to 40% in salt. There's iodine in there, vitamin B12, all sorts of things. And the flavour is excellent as well."

Red pepper is also mixed in with the tomato base to give the pizza extra vitamin C. As well as these nutrients, each pizza contains magnesium, potassium, folates and vitamin A.

Supermarket pizzas can contain high levels of salt, which can cause high blood pressure and strokes, and saturated fat which leads to hardened arteries.

The prototyped designs currently come in flavors including cheese & tomato and Highland venison.

The pizzas will only be available frozen as tests revealed the nutrients were better preserved that way, and Prof Lean and Donald Maclean said they had to work hard to keep prices down.

"Our pizzas are more expensive than most of the frozen pizzas but on a par with the chilled pizzas," said Mr Maclean.

The team now has other junk food favorites in their sights. Plans for future healthy concoctions include a nutritionally balanced curry and fish & chips.