Here is a tough question...use data for pre-made sauce

Does anyone know how I can estimate what percentage of the industry uses pre-made sauce? Can anyone guide towards any type of use data?

Thanks!
:?

Most everyone uses canned tomatoes as a base. Honestly, I doubt any decent percentage actually uses pre-made sauce without any doctoring. I have seen it done, but only in small shops. While there are several “fully prepared” pizza sauces out there, I’d bet most people do SOMETHING to it rather than just open the can and dump.

While I certainly applaud your idea of starting your own sauce recipe distribution, you must remember that different areas have different expectations from pizza sauce.

While the big chains will use the same sauce from coast-to-coast, different regions certainly have different tastes.

My favorite examples are St. Louis style pizza, Chicago style, and New York style. All three have completely different crusts, sauces and St. Louis uses a completely different cheese.

As an independant pizza operator (I am NOT one), most owners WANT their own “signature” sauce, not the same thing the guy down the street uses.

Are you defining “Pre-Made” as in not squashing the tomatos in house, or “pre-made” as in straight from the container without adding anything to it?

As the prior poster said I think everyone uses “pre-made” canned sauce but some people add their own spices to it and some people get canned sauce with spices already mixed in it.

If I remember correctly you are looking to sell your own pre-spiced canned/bagged sauce to indys. So I guess you are asking who is already using a sauce with spice already mixed in?

As the others have said, they all use pre-made sauce. As a frequent buyer and seller of pizza places, I have seen how at least 90 restaurants have operated. All 90 of them started with something canned.

I tried doing it myself once and starting with just a tomato. That did not work out so well.

So everyone uses cans, so there is a market for prepackaged stuff. However, the question is if there is a market to get people to replace their product with yours at a premium? As I said before, that is very unlikely.

Many thanks everyone for your replies… :smiley:

While most of the processors make a ready made sauce, most operatore will signature it by adding something special to make it their own, or to allow it to fit into specific taste parameters. For example, I’ve seen additional herbs added, fresh garlic added, or basil pesto added, I’ve even seen bullion added to a ready made sauce. The list is almost endless of what some operatore will add to a sauce to signature it. Yes, a few even use it as it comes from the can.
By far, the majority of independant operatore use some type of sauce that they make from a blend of different tomato products and then season it with their own blend of herbs. While most chains will all use the same product, it is typically made special for them, from their own sauce formula, so it really isn’t a canned, ready to use sauce, it is just their corporate sauce formula made up and canned for them.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

I hate to admit that I use a sauce straight out of a bag, it is a Roma branded product. And I get alot of compliments about it. I also use a ‘just add waterâ€