The third Friday in May is National Pizza Party Day, and Atlanta has lots of options to celebrate. Whether you want a whole pie or just a slice, you’ll be joining thousands of other Americans who eat about 100 acres of pizza a day, according to pizzaneed.com.
“Although mainly thought of as an Italian dish, pizza has seemingly existed forever,” nationaltoday.com wrote. “The ancient Greeks used to flavor their flatbread with oils, herbs, and cheese, while Persian soldiers used to bake their own pizzas on the hot surfaces of their shields. Traditional pizza is also known as Neapolitan pizza, and it originates—as the name suggests—from Naples, around the middle of the 16th century.”
In honor of the day, here are 15 statistics about pizza in the United States:
1. There are about 61,269 pizzerias in the U.S.
2. Americans consume about 251,770,000 pounds of pepperoni each year.
3. Each American eats about 46 slices of pie a year.
4. 36% of all pizza orders include pepperoni.
5. Pizza sales account for 10% of all food purchases.
6. The largest pizza made was in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the Norwood Pick ‘N’ Pay Hypermarket. I was 122 feet, 8.441 inches in diameter.
7. Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetables on their pie.
8. The world’s fastest pizza maker can create 14 pies in 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
9. The first known Chicago deep-dish pizza was created in 1943. The restaurant later became the chain known as Pizzeria Uno.
10. Sam Panopoulos, a native of Greece who owned a pizza restaurant in Canada, is credited with inventing Hawaiian pizza.
11. The first pizza delivered to outer space happened in 2001 when Pizza Hut sent a 6-inch salami pie to the International Space Station.
12. There is a pizza museum in Philadelphia called Pizza Brain. It’s home to the world’s largest collection of pizza memorabilia.
13. Spinning pizza dough has been found to be the best way to spread the dough evenly and help it retain moisture.
14. Pizza-flavored products have included potato chips, ice cream, beer and e-cigarettes.
15. The U.S. frozen pizza market was valued at $6.62 billion last year.
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