The first part of the production process is the inspection of the dough itself. Depending on the site setup, the dough is either produced on site or it arrives pre-made from another vendor. The dough is made and portioned out to be shaped into the base of the pizzas. Before shaping into pizza crusts, however, a manufacturer might confirm the weight of the dough. This would prevent any pizzas being made with too much or too little dough before adding toppings. Rejecting the dough at this stage, instead of waiting until it has been assembled into a pizza, reduces wasted ingredients that are added further downstream.

Other product inspection technologies such as metal detection or x-ray inspection systems may also be used here to check for foreign body contaminants, or even combined with a checkweigher into a single inspection system. Once the dough has been formed into its pizza shape, it moves along to the next production stage.

This stage is where portion control really becomes critical. Each topping is added - either manually, or with automated equipment to keep the amount of ingredients consistent. This includes sauce applicators, topping applicators for dry ingredients like cheese or other seasonings, and slicers for ingredients like pepperoni and other meats or meat substitutes. After the toppings have been added, the pizzas spend about 20 minutes in a blast freezer. A final weight check once the toppings have been added is recommended before freezing.

By automating the topping application process, the risks of inconsistencies are not as high, but they are still present – and catching them before freezing prevents wasted time, which is critical in food manufacturing. As with the dough production step, there is also a risk of metal or plastic contamination, so combining a weighing solution with a metal detection or x-ray inspection system is a sensible decision. Catching contaminated or out of specification pizzas before packaging saves in both rework and wasted materials. Once the pizzas are frozen, it's time to package them.

There are two packaging stages for the pizzas. First, most manufacturers wrap them in plastic film using an overwrapping machine. Then, the wrapped pizza is placed into a folding carton. After that, the cartons are packed into cases which are stored in a frozen environment before being shipped off to retailers.

Post-packaging, a checkweigher can verify the weight of the carton, and the weight of shipping cases – making sure that a case does not go out with missing pizzas. Using vision inspection at this stage to verify the information on the pizza carton is also recommended. This is particularly important when multiple varieties of pizza are produced on a production line. In this case, a checkweigher with an integrated vision inspection system can verify the weight of the pizza and the contents of the carton label.

This stage of production is a final Critical Control Point for foreign body checks, so a metal detection or x-ray inspection system should also be placed here. These systems can also be combined with the checkweigher into a single system for a more efficient use of production space.