The Popular Frozen Pizza Brand Nestlé Owns That Originally Came From Kraft

Food is a big business that many companies navigate successfully by strategically purchasing brands in order to grow. Nestlé is a giant global company with stakes in numerous food categories and brands across the spectrum, from pet treats and pasta to cereals and candy, and it has been active in the pizza-making world for more than a decade.

Nestlé owns DiGiorno, one of the most well-known frozen pizza brands in the industry. In 1995, DiGiorno arrived on the scene, and its rising-crust pizzas offered a viable alternative to ones delivered from a restaurant. (It even has the iconic tagline: "It's not delivery. It's DiGiorno.") The brand became a top-seller a few years later for its then-parent Kraft. However, in 2010, Nestlé bought the pizza brand from Kraft in order to expand its presence in the North American frozen pizza market, complementing its existing frozen food offerings and optimizing its distribution network. Today, DiGiorno's frozen pizza crust still tastes fresh.

Nestlé not only purchased DiGiorno but also reformulated the original DiGiorno pizza recipe, establishing its current quality. Many frozen and processed foods contain a high amount of sodium, and the original DiGiorno was no exception. In fact, if you look at the best store-bought frozen pizzas, chances are they have quite a bit of sodium. Salt is used for flavor and as a preservative, and it is known to cause adverse health effects when overconsumed. In response, many companies have lowered sodium content in their food brands.

After DiGiorno was purchased, the Nestlé company summoned a team of food scientists to reduce the sodium content without compromising flavor. As the world's largest food company, Nestlé is known for innovation and reimagining food concepts to keep ahead of culinary and consumer trends, so the team got to work. The scientists discovered that the majority of the pizza's sodium content was found in the dough. Nestlé, needing to bring DiGiorno pizza into compliance with its food quality standards, committed to solve the problem to make its pizza a bit healthier and succeeded.