LPG wins the pizzerias

Making pizzas in a wood-fired oven is almost a tradition to the pizzerias. However, breaking this mode, many restaurants have already stopped using firewood, considered more toxic and pollutant, and replaced by the oven to gas (LPG), which came to prominence by being more economical, practical, precise and not to impair the taste of the food.

An example of this reality is the pizzeria Adrix, located in São Bernardo do Campo, where the change began in 2009. To Adrix went on to sell 1000 units per week in 2010, after the exchange for gas oven mat type. Currently, produces about 264,000 pizzas per year, 40% the most since the days of the wood-fired oven. With the gas system, came the possibility of temperature control of ovens, which passed to bake quickly, reducing the interval between one batch and another. Since then, the production capacity went to an industrial level: 400 pizzas per hour.

The growing demand has made the main distributors of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) fitted to the current scenario. According to Vicente Longatti, Commercial Business Manager of Copagaz-fifth largest LPG distributor in Brazil – strategic changes were required. "We provide consultancy for institutions interested in migrating to the LPG in all stages of the process of replacing the wood to gas, in addition to the installation of tanks at the sites of consumption, which are supplied regularly by tanker trucks, replacing the transportable cylinders," he said.

The gas system also benefits the environment. Second study conducted by researchers at the IAG-USP, in collaboration with several research groups in Brazil and abroad, more than 11000 pizzerias just in Sao Paulo, the second city that most consumes pizza in the world, behind only New York, in the United States. Approximately 80% of these establishments burn firewood, especially eucalyptus, to produce about 1 million pizzas a day. The average quantity of firewood used by Pizzerias in the city is 48 tons per year. That number makes a total of 7.5 hectares of eucalyptus forest burned by month and 307,200 tons of incinerated wood completed the research.

In addition, the gas ovens are adjustable, allowing greater uniformity in the warm-up, preventing the pizzas burn and standardizing production, do not occupy as much space as the wood, in addition to less fouling the storage location, avoiding possible contamination, and does not harm the environment.