PLANO, Texas – Yum! Brands Inc. is teaming with Kellogg Co. to test a new Pizza Hut pizza topped with Incogmeato by MorningStar Farms plant-based Italian sausage.
The Pizza Hut Garden Specialty Pizza features a large, hand-tossed crust topped with onions, mushrooms, banana peppers and Incogmeato plant-based sausage. The pizza is testing at one Pizza Hut location in Phoenix for a limited time and will be sold beginning Oct. 23 at 11:00 a.m. for $10.
Kellogg debuted Incogmeato in early September. The meat alternative is made with non-GMO soy and bleeds, cooks and tastes like meat, the company said.
“Incogmeato is a new-to-the-world brand created to challenge convention on delicious plant-based food,” said Wendy Davidson, president of Kellogg’s away-from-home business. “Pizza Hut is the innovation leader in its category, and we are excited to partner with them to develop a tasty, first-ever plant-based pizza to satisfy what flexitarians are seeking today.”
Along with the Garden Specialty Pizza, Pizza Hut is testing a round pizza box that is industrially compostable and made with less overall packaging compared with traditional square pizza boxes. To develop the round box, Pizza Hut partnered with Zume, a sustainable packaging technology company. Pizza Hut is contemplating ways to roll out the box more widely in the near future, Yum! Brands said.
“This revolutionary round box — the result of a two-year journey — is the most innovative packaging we’ve rolled out to date,” said Nicolas Burquier, chief customer and operations officer for Pizza Hut. “The round box was engineered to make our products taste even better — by delivering hotter, crispier pizzas. This box is a win, win — it will improve the pizza-eating experience for our customers and simplify the operating experience for our team members.”
The Garden Specialty Pizza marks the second venture for Pizza Hut and Kellogg. In September, the two debuted the Stuffed Cheez-It Pizza, which features four baked jumbo squares of sharp cheddar Cheez-It cracker crust stuffed with either cheese or pepperoni and cheese.