You may not know it, but pizza is a cutthroat business. Getting an edge on any number of pizza sellers in your area can be tough. Keys to success involve making yourself distinctive and gaining a loyal following by delivering value. For Mark Maginot, chef and co-owner of Geppetto’s Grilled Pizzeria in Providence, Rhode Island, delivering improved nutrition in one of America’s most ‘fun’ foods was a way he could do both. The trick was finding a way to make pizza dough was high in fiber, great tasting and gave consumers a real ‘pizza eating experience’. Finding that solution was a process nearly half a year in the making and was enabled when Mark stumbled upon Hi-maize® resistant starch on the website of ingredient provider National Starch Food Innovation.

“I knew that I wanted to make a whole wheat dough that could differentiate itself from the other doughs that are out there. There’s a lot of whole wheat dough on the market, but not all of them have fiber,” said Maginot.  “Once I discovered Hi-maize, the process went pretty smoothly. Pizza dough has to be tough because of how we handle it. The National Starch people were great in helping us develop our formula,” he added.

Geppetto’s high fiber dough, dubbed “Hi-Wheat,” is virtually identical to conventional white dough in processing and sensory experience. It does not have the coarse texture of many high-fiber foods.  It delivers 14 grams of fiber, has no trans fat or cholesterol, delivers100 fewer calories per serving than regular dough and, most importantly, offers great taste and texture.

While increased fiber consumption has been linked to such health benefits as weight and energy management, moderating blood sugar response, and digestive/colonic health, adding fiber to foods can often times alter both flavor and texture. Recent studies suggest that Americans often consume less than half of their daily WHO recommended 25-30 grams of fiber. 

“There was a lot of experimenting,” said Maginot. “We wanted a palate friendly fiber for our customers, especially kids.  We tried regular stone ground wheat, but often when you try to add extra fiber to dough it can make it dry – like a cracker.”

Maginot says customer response has been tremendous. “Since we introduced our

Hi-Wheat pizza a few months ago, we’ve seen 300% growth in sales of our high fiber pizzas since the first month we offered it,” he said.  “I would definitely say that we’re seeing not only an increase in overall store traffic, but we’re seeing people come in 3 to 4 times a week, where they can have their favorite food and get their fiber. This pizza is a hit with families with children too”

For Geppetto’s, the birth of their Hi-Wheat dough has attracted more than happy customers - it’s attracted the attention of local and national media.  Since the launch of its high fiber dough, Geppetto’s has been featured in National Restaurant News and Pizza Today as well as The Providence Journal and Health Check 10 on NBC in Rhode Island.

With increased consumer awareness of the benefits of fiber consumption, the food industry is beginning to take a closer look at this important issue as well.  One area that Maginot sees major growth opportunity is in providing healthy, nutritious meal options to schools.  Maginot was recently approached by the Rhode Island non-profit organization Kids First, which works to improve and promote nutrition education in all 36 Rhode Island school districts as well as communities across the Northeast. Schools were interested in how they could incorporate his dough into their healthy eating curriculum. 

Kids First isn’t the only group interested in sharing in Maginot’s success.  “I recently went to a tradeshow and I had dieticians, school administrators, people from assisted living homes that were looking at our recipe and had no idea how it was possible to obtain that high of a fiber content without losing consistency,” said Maginot. “There’s this sense we really stumbled across something here.”

And Maginot can see the results.  “I’m just a business guy trying to increase pizza sales,” he said. “Right now, we have more opportunities than we have time to address.”