'Fakeaway' posh pizza grabs a bigger slice of the ready meal market

If you were in the mood for pizza the supermarket choice used to be straightforward fresh or frozen, thin or thick, margherita or pepperoni - but the UK's growing appetite for posh pizza is bringing little-known Italian regional specialities and outre toppings to the mainstream.

- Zoe Wood

The traditionally budget-friendly food's move upmarket is in part driven by demand for "fakeaways" where consumers opt for an upmarket ready meal over a takeaway or eating out. At the same time pizza has never been more fashionable, with interest in all its forms fuelled by a buzzing restaurant scene.

With nearly £1.8bn a year spent on fresh and frozen pizza in UK stores, according to analysts NIQ, the market is a huge prize for food brands with the lucrative gap for fancier fare bringing new names to the fore.

Sales at Crosta & Mollica, which tops its sourdough pizzas with ingredients such as smoked provola, fior di latte cheese and Taggiasca olives, have more than doubled in the past year. It claims to be the UK's only store-bought brand made in Italy, with its pizzas baked in wood-fired ovens on lava stone from Mount Etna.