Shelf life of pizza in the refrigerator, freezer, on the table

One of the most popular dishes of Italian cuisine, pizza, is made from dough. And the filling is cheese and tomato sauce. It should be consumed freshly prepared. But if you couldn’t do it at once, and some of the baked goods remained uneaten, you can extend its freshness for a while. We’ll talk further about how and how long you can store pizza.

How to keep pizza warm

If the courier brought the order much earlier than the guests arrived, and there are fears that the dish will have completely cooled down by the time they arrive, you can wrap the package as tightly as possible in foil. Then cover with a warm blanket or other thick cloth.

• You can place the dish on a baking sheet and place it in the oven preheated to +50°C. In this case, you need to place a container of water nearby so that, as the moisture evaporates, it does not allow the baked goods to dry out.
• If you divide the pizza into several parts, and then put it in a food container, close it tightly and put it in a thermal bag, it will remain warm and fresh for a long time. THIS storage method is convenient for trips out of town.
• Baked goods bought on the way home will remain warm if you put the box on the car seat and turn on the heating.
• When ordering a dish for delivery, you should ask that it be wrapped in several layers of foil.
• The shelf life of finished pizza at +20°С -+23°С is limited to 6 hours.
• To prevent the juice from the vegetables from making the dough too wet, the pizza is wrapped in several layers of napkins and then placed in a plastic bag.

A dish that contains meat in any form can be stored for no more than 6 hours. Sausages reduce the shelf life of pizza to 4 hours, and seafood and fish - to 2.

Factors that affect the freshness of pizza

There are certain factors that affect shelf life:

1. Readiness.
2. Place.
3. Filling.

Frozen semi-finished product can be stored in the refrigerator for up to six months from the date indicated on the package.

The finished product can remain usable for 2 to 6 hours at room temperature. However, the shelf life depends on the filling. Pizza with meat filling will retain its freshness the longest - up to 6 hours . If sausage or frankfurters were used - up to 4 hours . Fish and seafood fillings are perishable products and can spoil in just 2 hours .

Refrigerated storage time:

• With meat, cheese, sausage and frankfurters at temperatures below 5 degrees – 2 days .
• With fish and seafood at a temperature of 7 degrees - no longer than 8 hours .
• Ready-made homemade pizza can be stored for 1 month in the freezer at -18 degrees .

If you plan to enjoy your favorite dish at a picnic, then transporting pizza should be done using a special thermal bag. The product cannot be kept in such a shipping container for more than 3 hours.

Methods for reheating pizza

• The easiest and most affordable way to heat up pizza is to place it in the microwave. The product is placed on a plate in one layer, wrapped in film (not foil) and left for 1 minute (at an oven power of 500 W). Instead of cling film, you can use a plastic bag or a special lid.
• You can make your baked goods more delicious if you keep them in an oven preheated to 200°C for a few minutes.
• If you cover the baking sheet with parchment, the pizza will brown and be covered with an appetizing crust. You can also add grated cheese, vegetables and grease with olive oil. You can remove the treat from the oven after 5 - 7 minutes, when the cheese has melted.
• It’s even easier to do the same thing in a frying pan over low heat. Cover the pizza with a lid and wait for the cheese to start melting. Usually 7 - 10 minutes are enough for this.
• Do not place a product in a preheated oven that was previously in the refrigerator. To prevent the dough from losing its softness and fluffiness, it needs to be left in natural conditions for some time. But in any case, after heating, the pizza should be eaten immediately, without waiting for it to become “rubbery”.

History of pizza

The history of pizza goes back to ancient times. We can assume that as soon as a person learned to bake flatbread with any filling, this was already the beginning of the history of pizza. In ancient Egypt and Persia, peasants baked open flatbreads, laying vegetables and meat on their surface. The Egyptians sometimes added seaweed to the dough, which gave the sour yeast dough a pleasant aroma.

Hot, with stretchy cheese... perhaps this is exactly what the legendary food of the gods was? But pizza, of course, has never been the food of the gods. More like food for the poor. The ancient Greeks also had their own pizza - cheese, olives, herbs, garlic and onions served as fillings. This dish was called "plakuntos".

But modern historians still have not decided which of the ancients can bear the name of the inventor of the well-known dish - pizza.

In a word, pizza is an ancient and mysterious dish. In Italy it is one, in America it is another.

Cold storage

When in the refrigerator, in an ordinary box, the baked goods will very quickly become damp and viscous. And the cheese will become weathered and stale. The juice from the vegetables will be absorbed into the crust (a thinner crust will get wet faster).

To prevent moisture from spoiling the product, it is placed in a container with a lid (in extreme cases, left in its “original” box) and covered with several layers of napkins. In this form, the baked goods will remain reheatable for 12 hours. And in order for it to retain its quality for another 2 days, it should be packaged correctly.

The pizza pieces are wrapped in film so that they are closed on all sides and placed in a food container with a lid. It should be remembered that this dish absorbs foreign odors quite quickly. Therefore, the tightness of the packaging is important.

How long you can store pizza in the refrigerator will depend on the quality of the dough, type of toppings and packaging. But usually the storage period should not exceed 2-3 days at a temperature of +5°C.

Subtleties of storage

In order for pizza to delight you with its unique taste after heating, you should know the intricacies of its storage.

The purchased pizza, if it will be consumed no later than 12 hours after purchase, can be placed in the refrigerator directly in a cardboard package, wrapping each piece in several layers of paper napkins or towels.

In cases where it is necessary to store it for a longer time, you should release it from the packaging and adhere to the rules listed below. These rules apply to both store-bought pizza and home-cooked dishes.

Cold storage

Before putting the pizza in the refrigerator, cool it to room temperature. You can store it in several ways:

• Each piece is packaged . Materials for this can be: cling film, foil, parchment. Then, the packaged pieces are placed in a container and tightly closed with a lid.
• Layering pizza slices in a container . To do this, paper towels are placed at the bottom of the container. Then slices of pizza are placed in one layer, which are covered with the same paper towels. Thus, alternating layers, fill the entire container, which is then tightly closed.
• Separately, each piece is wrapped in a paper bag and packaged in cling film or a plastic bag.

How to keep pizza warm?

There are times when pizza is not consumed immediately, but after 2-3 hours. Depending on the circumstances, you can ensure that it remains warm before it reaches the table by doing the following:

1. Wrap it in foil and cover it with a blanket or towel.
2. Place in the oven and turn on the converter mode at 50 degrees . In this case, it is necessary to place a container of water in the oven. This is done to prevent the pizza from drying out.
3. If you are planning a trip to nature, in order to keep the product warm, you need to put it in a container with a tight lid and place it in a thermal bag .
4. To bring pizza warm from a store or pizzeria, you can put it in the front seat of the car with the heat on.
5. If you have to transport the product on public transport, you must ask the store or pizzeria staff to pack it in two layers of foil . This is especially true when it's cold outside.

Frozen pizza

In cases where there is not enough time for anything, the frozen version of the product comes to the rescue. You can buy it in the store, or you can prepare it yourself, making the filling according to your taste and desire.

There are no questions about how to store already purchased frozen pizza. But when preparing a homemade version, they appear.

In order to properly freeze pizza, you need to prepare all the ingredients needed for this: make the dough and cut the ingredients for the filling. After this, make holes in the rolled out dough using a fork, coat the base with tomato paste or ketchup and lay out the chopped filling.

Before putting the semi-finished product in the freezer, you need to prepare a sheet of parchment or foil , place the workpiece on it and place it in the freezer, setting the fast freezing mode to a temperature of -18 to -22 degrees . At this temperature, the pizza will harden in an hour and a half. After this, you need to take it out, pack it in a plastic bag and put it back.

Freezer storage

If you plan to store pizza for longer than 2 days, you should do this exclusively in the freezer. This product can be purchased frozen in the store, so it would be logical to keep it in the freezer at home. You can do the same with the part of the pizza that you couldn’t eat entirely.

Before freezing the dish, each piece is wrapped in film or placed in a vacuum bag.

Pizza should be stored in the freezer at a temperature of -18°C or lower. The shelf life should not exceed half a year.

For those who are interested in knowing whether it is possible to freeze raw pizza , we will immediately say that it is better not to do this . There is no certainty that the structure of the dough will not change and that it will be baked during cooking. It would be more correct to freeze ready-made cakes with raw filling.

The product is spoiled: how to determine and what to do?

In order for eating pizza not to end in complete disappointment, or even worse, poisoning, you need to eat only fresh product .

If a dish is prepared at home, it is important to make it from high-quality and fresh products, observing the above-listed terms and storage conditions.

When purchasing, you need to know the rules that allow you to purchase a fresh product:

1. The packaging should visually look neat and new.
2. The shelf life must be indicated on the packaging.
3. The shape of the pizza should not be deformed.
4. The filling should look fresh and the dough should be crispy. If the dough stretches like rubber, it means that the product is most likely not fresh and has been reheated. And this increases the risk of getting poisoned.
5. If pizza was ordered to your home, you must make sure that the courier delivered the dish in a special thermal bag.

Before eating pizza, you should follow simple rules: storage rules; shelf life; be careful and careful when purchasing. If you do not follow these recommendations, you can suffer greatly - get serious poisoning . Therefore, if you have doubts about the quality of the product, you need to understand that it should not be consumed.

How to make pizza

This dish is very easy to prepare. Yeast or unleavened dough can be used. It needs to be kneaded and rolled out by hand. Yeast dough is most often made, but it takes more time. Unleavened dough isn't as tasty, but it does make the pizza last a little longer. You can choose a variety of ingredients for pizza toppings. Use the sauce to coat the dough. And spices give pizza a special aroma. You can prepare the sauce yourself using tomato paste, olive or vegetable oil, sour cream and Provençal herbs. Cheese and tomatoes are almost always used. And meat products, vegetables, mushrooms and other ingredients are chosen to taste. The dish is baked in an oven at high temperature. In addition to the recipe, it is also important to know the shelf life of the pizza.

How to properly store pizza dough?

Storing it is very simple: divide the dough into portions, roll it into balls and wrap it in cling film. After preparing the dough, you can put it in the refrigerator and forget about it for two to three days. Once cooled, it can be used immediately. Frozen pizza dough will keep in the freezer for six months.

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Shelf life of frozen pizza

Recently, more and more people prefer semi-finished products. Pizza is no exception. The semi-finished product has its undeniable advantages, including: speed of preparation and convenient methods for storage, as well as, if purchased in a store, a comfortable price. So, in order for a home-made semi-finished product to be stored for a long time, it is necessary:

• Subject the product to primary freezing in the freezer at a temperature of -22 degrees;
• After 60 minutes, remove the frozen product;
• Wrap in cellophane and put back.

Speaking about frozen pizza base and semi-finished products purchased in a store or supermarket, the following storage conditions should be highlighted:

• Temperature from -18 to -23 degrees Celsius;
• Cannot be re-frozen.

The shelf life of semi-finished products is 180 days .

The benefits and harms of pizza

Also, do not forget that this dish can bring benefits and harm. Since pizza contains tomatoes, lipoline enters the human body along with them. This substance gives vegetables their characteristic color. Lipoline is rich in antioxidants. Thanks to them, diseases of the cardiovascular system and oncology are prevented. Eating pizza frequently can reduce your risk of esophageal cancer by 59 percent. Calcium also enters the body along with cheese. But do not forget about the considerable amount of fats and calories that contribute to the appearance of extra pounds. If pizza is made from white flour, which contains a lot of yeast, then the dish will also have beneficial properties. For them to activate, the dish must be cooked for at least 11 minutes at a temperature above 287 degrees. In most cases, the dough is made from wheat, it contains many useful substances. They contain antioxidants that have anti-inflammatory properties. Thanks to them, the body can be more protected.