It's Financially Savvy To Put Pizza In Square Boxes

With different crust styles and a variety of toppings spanning from pepperoni to banana peppers and the always-controversial pineapple, pizza is one of the most versatile foods people can enjoy. Each pizza pie can be customized to anyone's individual preference, making it a food beloved by many, even those with allergies or dietary restrictions.

Although pizza can come in a square or rectangular shape — especially if you're enjoying a slice of Detroit-style pizza — round is the most common shape that a pizza pie comes in. This may be because dough balls are typically thinned out beginning at the center, making the pizza's base flat and circular. 

While you're digging into your freshly baked pizza, you might wonder why the box's shape differs from the shape of the pie. There are a few reasons pizza comes packed in a square box — one of which is that it just makes more sense, cost-wise.

At first thought, it might seem strange to put a circle-shaped food into a square box. But as it turns out, there's a good reason that round pizza goes into square boxes. Square pizza boxes are easier and cheaper to produce, and one box can be created from a single piece of flat cardboard and can be folded on-site in the kitchen of a pizza joint. Plus, a larger surface area makes them easier to stack, so employees can grab one to package up a customer's order, making it easier and quicker for employees to pack your pizza to-go.

However, some people have had the idea to create a round box for the food. A round pizza box was actually invented back in 2004 and named the Presseal. Its inventor claimed it prevented pizza from sliding around, keeping cheese and toppings perfectly intact from the oven to the table. He also claimed it trapped grease better than its square counterpart, making for less mess every time you reached for a slice. However, manufacturers weren't exactly on board with the invention, and it never took off.

Just because square pizza boxes are the norm doesn't mean every restaurant rejects them entirely. In fact, tech company Apple has a patented round pizza box exclusively for employees to take personal pies from the company's cafeteria back to their desks to eat on-location at its campuses. The round pizza containers also feature small holes in the lid, allowing steam to escape while retaining most of the heat, preventing the crust and toppings from getting soggy.

A similar product was introduced in 2018. The Pizza Round was a fully compostable container made from sugarcane and bamboo and debuted in sizes perfect for fitting 12- and 14-inch pizzas. It was designed to use less material than standard pizza boxes while maintaining the quality of the pizza inside. It featured grooves intended to trap and hold grease while keeping the pizza crust crisp.

Although round pizza boxes are far from the norm, we may see a shift in box shapes someday.