Schwan’s Food Service, Inc., a subsidiary of The Schwan Food Co., Bloomington, Minn., expanded its premium-pizza portfolio for K-12 schools with its first par-baked Big Daddy’s Primo pizza offerings.

The new 16-inch Four Cheese and Turkey Beef Pepperoni pizzas offer simplicity of handling and preparation for back-of-the-house operations while delivering on the brand’s recognized premium-pizza experience for students.

“We listened to operators who told us that they wanted a par-baked pizza to solve their preparation challenges and also deliver the quality and flavor of Big Daddy’s Primo rising crust pizzas,” says Helene Clark, vice president of sales planning and K-12. “We’re confident that these new pizzas fully deliver on our standards of culinary excellence and nutrition.”

The new pizzas feature a preservative-free crust with no artificial flavors, certified artificial colors or high-fructose corn syrup. The pizzeria-style artisanal crusts are naturally yeast leavened, and the cheese variety uses a premium blend of mozzarella, Parmesan, provolone and white cheddar cheeses.

“It really is the quality of our par-baked pizzas that sets us apart,” says Clark. “With our 40-year legacy in K-12 and pizza, we’ve brought the industry’s newest oven and sheeting technology to our leading-edge ingredient profiles to establish a new benchmark.”

The par-baked pizzas meet child nutrition program requirements. One 8-cut slice of the new pizza delivers 360 calories (cheese) or 370 calories (pepperoni).

“We’re now able to provide our customers with the Big Daddy’s Primo pizza that best meets their needs,” says Clark. “With quality, performance and taste being equal, our original rising-crust pizzas provide operators fresh-baked appeal as well as additional culinary flexibility, while our par-baked pizzas provide a faster bake and ease of handling.”