6 Frozen Pizza Brands That Use the Lowest-Quality Ingredients

Frozen pizza is delicious, but is it healthy? While pizza generally isn't considered a healthy food due to the abundance of gluten, cheese, and calorie-heavy toppings, frozen pizza is oftentimes even worse for you, due to preservatives and additives included to maintain freshness. We asked Tara Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, LD/N, ACSM-CPT, also known as The Diet Diva, a Board-Certified Sports Dietitian and co-author of Flat Belly Cookbook for Dummies, to weigh in on some of the most popular frozen pizzas made with the lowest quality ingredients.

Totino's Party Pizza

Totino's Party Pizza has been around for a long time and is known for offering a lot of bang for your buck. However, Collingwood isn't a fan of the ingredients, including "rehydrated" mozzarella cheese. "When imitation foods are used, the final product is low in nutritional value," she explains. "Imitation cheese and meats don't have much protein. The ingredient list is very long because there are so many artificial ingredients and preservatives added."

Celeste Pizza for One

Celeste pizzas are cheap and convenient, but similar to Totino's in terms of ingredients. "The imitation cheese is just oil, potato, and corn starch and devoid of protein, calcium, and other nutrients typically found in real cheese," Collingwood says.

Tony's Frozen Pizza

Tony's, another budget pizza brand, might taste delicious, but the crusts aren't made with high-quality ingredients. "The processed crusts are made from refined flour and oil, which is devoid of a lot of nutritional value. Other ingredients are also highly processed and contain fillers that lack nutritional value," says Collingwood.

Red Baron Classic Crust

Red Baron pizzas are packed with preservatives, processed cheese blends, and meats treated with additives. "Preservatives are used in pizzas to keep the meats and cheeses safe to eat while staying in the freezer for long periods of time," explains Collingwood.

Great Value Frozen Pizza (Walmart)

Walmart's in-house brand pizzas usually contain artificial flavors, soybean oil, and low-cost processed ingredients. "Artificial ingredients are used to keep the costs down, but it also brings the nutritional value down with it," says Collingwood.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

Jack's Original Thin Crust

Jack's pizzas have a long shelf life due to artificial preservatives, flavor enhancers, and minimal real cheese. "If they used real ingredients, they wouldn't have to use flavor enhancers!" says Collingwood.