Italy's favourite frozen pizza made in Britain

The company now commands 20 per cent of the Italian pizza market. Photo / Thinkstock

Italians who like to boast no one makes pizza like their mamma are facing the indigestible news that Italy's most popular shop-bought example is likely to have started life in Lancashire.

For while the denizens of Leyland near Preston might be unlikely to be heard muttering chi mangia bene, vive bene (those who eat well live well) as they relax over their morning cappuccino and biscotti, it seems they do know a thing or two about frozen pizzas.

Yesterday it emerged that the Ristorante brand produced by the German food conglomerate Dr Oetker at its plant on an industrial estate just off the M6 is the best-selling frozen pizza in a country synonymous with passion and pride in food.

According to sales data released by IRI, the company now commands 20 per cent of the Italian pizza market.

It beat into second place Buitoni Bella Napoli - founded nearly 200 years ago by Giuseppe Buitoni but bought by Nestle in 1988.

Although Italy may be the home of the Slow Food movement, the country has along with other European countries experienced a steady decline in home cooking.

The current market for convenience food is worth €6.6 billion ($11.6 billion) - similar to that in Britain, according to Euromonitor.

Sales of packaged food are rising in line with the rest of Europe at the rate of around 15 per cent a year.

Foodies reacted in horror last year when McDonald's teamed up with Silvio Berlusconi's Government to create a special product to suit the local tastebuds.

The McItaly burger of home-grown beef, artichoke spread, Asiago cheese and smoked pancetta was, perhaps predictably, panned by the critics.

- INDEPENDENT