Innovation & Technology

Knorr Gives Our Favorite Comfort Food a Planet-Friendlier Makeover

Knorr’s ‘Plizza’ is the brand’s updated take on the classic dish that features plant-based, nutrient-rich ingredients from crust to toppings — in honor of World Eat for Good Day.

Published 3 years ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Knorr

This week, Knorr® gave pizza — one of the world’s most popular foods — a sustainable twist, in celebration of World Eat for Good Day on 19 February.

With roughly five billion pizzas sold every year around the world, Knorr wants to show the hungry masses that making our go-to comfort food with planet-friendlier ingredients can add up to significant positive impacts.

The Plizza will be available for free on World Eat for Good Day in six participating cities in the United States (Chicago — Easy Street Pizza), Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand and China — where a limited number of Plizzas will be made fresh and delivered hot via the local food delivery app. Those who miss the Plizza delivery opportunity or want to make their own at home can access the recipe via the cook-along video.

Knorr developed the Plizza to show how easy it is to make delicious swaps in everyday meals that can decrease foods' negative impact on the planet while positively impacting our health. Currently, our food system is a key contributor to climate change, species loss, water scarcity, and soil loss and damage. 75 percent of the global food supply is made up of just 12 plant and five animal species , making the food system fragile to the potential impacts of diseases, pests and climate change.

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The good news is, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health has determined that food is the strongest lever to maximize human and planetary health. Eating a wider variety of plant-based, nutrient-dense foods helps safeguard the future of food while reducing the use of the planet's resources. Launching Plizza is part of Knorr's commitment to get food that is good for people and the planet on seven billion plates by 2025, globally.

"Food is a delicious force for good and we're on a mission to get food that's better for us and the planet on everyone's plates,” says April Redmond, Global Brand VP at Knorr. “With Knorr's authentic flavor paired with the Future 50 foods, we are showing the world just how irresistible eating for good can be. Together we will change the world by changing what's on our plates."

The first-ever Plizza is 100 percent plant-based and packed with Future 50 Foods – 50 nutritious ingredients from around the world that Knorr and WWF-UK determined in 2019 can boost the nutritional value of our meals whilst reducing the environmental impact of our food supply. The recipe itself becomes a Plizza with three simple swaps — making the dough with wholegrain spelt flour; a sauce made with sustainably sourced ingredients such as flaxseed oil, paired with soil-enriching, high-fiber beans such as black-eyed peas; and replacing the toppings with nutrient-packed veggies such as fast-growing spinach, shiitake mushrooms and self-sowing watercress.

Knorr says 95 percent of its vegetables and herbs are grown sustainably, globally; and the company has committed to growing 80 percent of key ingredients (vegetables, herbs, spices, grains) following Unilever Regenerative Agriculture Principles by 2026. With experts predicting there is less than 30 years of water left and 90 percent of soil will be degraded by 2050, there is an urgent need to grow food in not only sustainable but regenerative ways.

"On World Eat for Good Day, we want to help everyone understand the impact our food system has on our planet and our health and provide a delicious way to make a positive change,” says Dorothy Shaver, Global Food Sustainability Director at Unilever. “Knorr is on a mission to help everyone eat a wider variety of plants that are grown in sustainable and regenerative ways for our health and the health of the planet. Through this campaign, in addition to our products, programs, and partnerships we are inspiring everyone to Eat for Good."