03.Best for taste
However healthy a pizza may be, it’s the taste that really matters. Our expert tasters rated the healthiest pizzas from each of the major brands ( Taste Test table, for details). While they didn’t consider any to be outstanding, the four below led the pack for flavour and appearance – three of which were takeaways from the each of the big chains and the fourth a chilled pizza from Aldi that you cook yourself.
All brands of frozen pizza rated poorly. The experts described them as having poor quality ingredients and very sweet and doughy. And with the exception of Aldi’s Fresh Approach Calabrese, the tasters didn’t rate the more expensive chilled pizzas very highly either.
What to buy
Pizza Hut Veggie Supreme (Perfecto crust) $7.95
Tasters’ comments: “Fresh appearance, crisp crust, not smothered in cheese.”
Fresh Approach Calabrese (Aldi) $6.99
Tasters’ comments: “Dough a bit oily, but good taste; restrained, simple topping, but sweet.”
Domino’s Good Choice Chicken, Tomato & Oregano Ciabatta $7.95
Tasters’ comments: “Crisp crust; best of the lot but too much topping with too many ingredients.”
Eagle Boys Zesty Lemon and Prawn (Mid-Base crust) $9.95
Tasters’ comments: “Crust is thin and well cooked but a little too sweet; well presented but a little too much cheese and quite bland.”
Meet the experts
Many thanks to our three experts, all of whom trained in Italy and own and run Italian restaurants in Sydney.
George Pompei, Pompei’s Gelateria and Pizzeria, 126 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach.
Ilario Ventolini, Moretti Caffé, 47 Norton Street, Leichhardt. 
Ben Riccio, Napoli in Bocca Restaurant, 73 Dalhousie Street, Haberfield. 
How we test
We couldn’t taste test all 191 pizzas, so we picked the healthiest choice from each of the major brands – 11 pizzas all up. The chain pizzas were delivered or picked up within 30 minutes of being tasted; the frozen and chilled pizzas were bought the day before. For comparison, we also included a healthy pizza that’s quick and easy to make at home. Three experts rated the pizzas for taste and appearance (60% and 40% respectively of the overall score), taking into account factors such as the quality of the crust, whether the pizza is baked evenly, the quality of the ingredients and the overall flavour balance.