Having a pizza clean cut means having your pizza sliced with a clean cutting tool that has been washed after it was last used. Ask the restaurant for a clean cut pizza to avoid having food remnants from other pizzas transferred to yours.
What is a Clean Cut Pizza?
A standard cut pizza is sliced into wedges with a rotary pizza slicer or a rocker blade, before being boxed and handed to the customer. Most pizza restaurants produce so many pizzas that they don’t have time to wash the slicer after every pizza.
Recently, clean cut pizzas have become popular with some customers who have specific reasons for wanting a clean slicer to be used on their pizzas.
Why Get a Pizza Clean Cut?
Food remnants like melted cheese and bits of toppings often stick to pizza slicers. These bits of food are then transferred to the next pizza the slicer is used on.
Someone who wants to practice good hygiene or who has food allergies, religious dietary restrictions, or dietary preferences can ask for a clean cut pizza.
Allergies
Many people who have food allergies can suffer dangerous consequences from eating certain foods. A clean cut pizza ensures foods from other pizzas aren’t contaminating a person’s pizza. Some common food allergies include:
- Gluten Intolerance: Gluten intolerance can be very dangerous as someone who has a gluten intolerance cannot digest gluten and could become seriously ill after ingesting even a tiny amount. Regular pizza dough contains gluten and many pizza restaurants offer gluten-free pizzas, but they need to be cut with a clean pizza slicer to prevent gluten contamination
- Tomato Allergies: Tomato allergies cause unpleasant symptoms like skin rashes, swelling of the airways, and abdominal pains. A small scrap of tomato, transferred by a dirty pizza slicer, can trigger an allergic reaction in someone with a severe tomato allergy
- Lactose Intolerance: Lactose intolerance, or an allergy to dairy products, causes digestive problems like stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Although cheese is usually the main ingredient on pizza, some pizza restaurants offer dairy-free pizzas without cheese, but they need to be cut with a clean pizza slicer to prevent contamination
- Mushroom Allergies: Mushroom allergies cause symptoms like skin rashes, respiratory difficulty, and abdominal cramps if the sufferers eat mushrooms. The smallest piece of mushroom transferred from a dirty pizza slicer can trigger a severe reaction in an allergic person
Food allergies can be life-threatening. Potential exposure to dangerous allergens can be avoided by asking for a clean cut pizza.
Hygiene
Pizza restaurant kitchens are warm from the heat of the ovens, and a warm environment creates ideal conditions for bacteria to multiply and for germs to spread.
A pizza slicer holding onto remnants of cheese and veggies is a potential breeding ground for bacteria. People who want to practice good hygiene and avoid bacteria can ask for a clean cut pizza.
A person who is immunocompromised particularly needs to make sure they won’t become ill from eating a pizza contaminated by bacteria.
Religion
People who belong to a certain faith or religion and adhere to its practices often have specific dietary requirements that may require a clean cut pizza instead of a regular one. Religions with potential dietary requirements include:
- Judaism: Many Jews follow the Jewish law forbidding pork in any form, while religious Jews follow a fully kosher diet that specifies a ritual slaughter of all meat
- Islam: Like Judaism, Islam prohibits the eating of pork, and all food needs to be halal
- Buddhism: Buddhists often observe a conscious-eating diet that forbids many foods, depending on the level of observance and the traditions the follower chooses to live by
- Jainism: Jains don’t eat root vegetables and some types of fruits
Followers of these religions are able to observe their religious practices by asking for a clean cut pizza, ensuring they won’t accidentally receive any forbidden foods on their pizza.
Dietary Preferences
Vegetarians don’t eat any meat or meat products, and vegans don’t eat any food that originates from animals, such as meat, fish, eggs, or cheese.
Clean cut pizza is a good option for people who want to ensure they won’t consume any food that is unacceptable to their lifestyle.
Clean Cut Pizza & Alternatives
People with food allergies, religious dietary restrictions, hygiene concerns, and dietary preferences often ask for a clean cut pizza to accommodate their needs.
Another option for those who don’t want their pizza to be cut with a dirty pizza slicer is to ask for a no cut pizza, which the customers can cut themselves.
Strictly observant Jews and Muslims sometimes have the option of eating in a kosher or halal restaurant, where a clean cut pizza isn’t necessary.
Specialty vegetarian and vegan pizza restaurants also remove many patrons’ need to ask for a clean cut pizza.
