Pizza cheese is a pasteurized process cheese food designed to melt well on pizza

Pizza

Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...

 while remaining chewy. It is sometimes used on commercially produced pizzas in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, where some people may mistake it for the more traditional Mozzarella

Mozzarella

Mozzarella is an Italian Traditional Speciality Guaranteed food product. The term is used for several kinds of Italian cheeses that are made using spinning and then cutting :...

. Pizza cheese is formulated so that it can be made with basic cheese making equipment but without the additional equipment and processing that true Mozzarella requires.

It has a soft texture, and is designed to melt well. Once melted, it typically has a slightly ‘stringy’ quality when pulled or bitten into.

Other uses of name

"Pizza cheese" may also be used as a name for snack cheeses with added vegetable ingredients such as tomato or bell pepper

Bell pepper

Bell pepper, also known as sweet pepper or a pepper and capsicum , is a cultivar group of the species Capsicum annuum . Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, orange and green. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent pepper varieties as...

, herbs, and natural or artificial concentrated flavorings that attempt to replicate some of the flavors of a pizza.

See also

• Provel cheese
  Provel cheese
  Provel is a white processed cheese that is popular in St. Louis, Missouri. Provel is produced with Cheddar, Swiss, and provolone. Provel has a low melting point and, thus, has a gooey and almost buttery texture at room temperature. It is the traditional topping for St. Louis-style pizza...
  
  
• Processed cheese
  Processed cheese
  Processed cheese, process cheese, cheese slice, prepared cheese, cheese singles or cheese food is a food product made from normal cheese and sometimes other unfermented dairy ingredients, plus emulsifiers, extra salt, food colorings, or whey...