Pizza box self-supe

There is actually a book on the subject of pizza boxes. According to Scott Wiener, the pizza box is an integral part of the pizza buying experience.

It seems to me a B. Street Farmers Market pizza box should meet four conditions:
(1) The box has to protect the pizza during transport.
(2) The box has to vent off steam from the cooling pizza to avoid sogginess.
(3) The box has to “release” the pizza — no sticking
(4) The box should align with the goals of the market to serve natural, fresh, pure, organic and local food.

In regard to condition (4), questions have been raised in regard to the chemicals in the cardboard of pizza boxes, the coating on the cardboard, and whether these chemicals migrate into the food.

A few years ago box manufacturers began moving away from using certain chemicals out of an abundance of caution — or of strong evidence. Eventually the FDA outlawed those chemicals.

Which leaves us to wonder how much safer the alternative coatings used now are.

World Centric makes a pizza box that checks off most of the four conditions listed above, although not all: it is not local. They call their box a PizzaRound. I’m going to call the box a pizza canteen, because a PizzaRound resembles a classic canteen bottle design.

The pizza canteen material does not contain additives to the base material, such as coatings to ensure the box doesn’t get soggy and in turn inpart the taste of cardboard into the pizza. That cardboard taste may mean chemicals from the recycled box material are being introduced into the pizza.

The canteens are made from plant based materials and are similar to boxes used by Pizza Hut. Interestingly, canteens from long ago were also made from plant material, such as gourds.

Neat feature: canteens are oven safe up to 450 degrees F. That means the buyer can reheat pizza in their oven using the box.

The boxes are available through Amazon or direct from World Centric.

Here’s a link to a video demonstration of canteen features.

^SOURCE