Best cheese for pizza: mozzarella, cheddar blend or fior di latte

Updated 7 October 20265 min readRomain Ferrand — pizzaiolo, 12 years in trucks and dining rooms

The best cheese for pizza depends on your oven. At 430–485 °C (wood-fired, Neapolitan): fior di latte or buffalo mozzarella, drained, 80–100 g a pizza. At 280–350 °C (electric deck, conveyor): low-moisture mozzarella, block or grated, on its own or blended with cheddar for flavour and colour. And never a vegetable-fat "pizza topping" passed off as cheese.

The cheeses UK pizzerias actually use

Cheese	Moisture	Melt and stretch	Browning	Best oven	Rough price ex VAT
Fior di latte / Mozzarella Tradizionale TSG	Around 60% or more	Milky, releases water	Low	400 °C and up	Several £ more than grated
Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO	Wettest	Creamy, very rich	Low	Neapolitan, often added late	Premium
Low-moisture mozzarella (block, diced, grated)	45–52%	Even melt, good stretch	Good	Deck 280–350 °C, conveyor	£4–7/kg
80/20 mozzarella–cheddar blend	Low	Stretch plus flavour	Very good	Takeaway deck and conveyor	From about £4/kg
Cheddar, red Leicester	Low	Little stretch, oils off	Very good	Blended only	Varies
Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, pecorino	Very low	No stretch	Burns fast	Finishing	Premium

For reference, wholesale 80/20 mozzarella–cheddar blends sell in 5 × 2 kg cases at around £3.90–4.40/kg ex VAT at cash and carry, while straight grated mozzarella runs higher. Quote against your real weekly volume, not the price list.

On a four-cheese pizza, cut the mozzarella by about 30%: the other cheeses already bring the fat and the salt.

Mozzarella, cheddar or a blend?

The UK takeaway standard is grated low-moisture mozzarella, very often cut with cheddar. Cheddar brings the savoury taste and the golden, blistered top British customers expect; mozzarella brings the stretch and the white "pull" in the photo. An 80/20 blend is the sweet spot for most shops. Go much past 30% cheddar and you get oil pooling in the box.

Mozzarella only for the Margherita and anything sold as Neapolitan or Italian.
Blend for meat feasts, BBQ chicken and pepperoni, where flavour and colour matter more than purity.
Fior di latte only if your oven runs above 400 °C. In a 300 °C deck it turns the middle to soup.

Watery pizza? Drain the fresh mozzarella

Fresh fior di latte carries a lot of water. At 450 °C it flashes off in 60–90 seconds; at 300 °C it has four minutes to soak the base.

Cut it into strips or cubes the night before, or 1–2 hours before service.
Drain it in a colander covered with film, in the fridge, never on the counter all day: it is a high-risk chilled food and stays below 8 °C.
Press it lightly before topping, or add it halfway through the bake.

Watery pizza, pale rim: the dough troubleshooter

Pre-grated, block or fresh?

Pre-grated saves labour but contains an anti-caking agent (starch or cellulose), so it melts slightly less smoothly. A block grated in-house melts better and costs less per kilo, for the price of a grater and ten minutes a day. Either way, reseal opened bags, rotate stock first-in first-out and respect the supplier's use-within-days-of-opening: open bags dry out and clump.

What does cheese cost per pizza?

120 g of mozzarella at £6/kg is 72p ex VAT on a 12-inch. It is usually the most expensive single ingredient on the menu, so weighing portions beats chasing a cheaper brand: going from 140 g to 120 g across 600 pizzas a week saves about £70. Small buyers can't negotiate like a 100 kg-a-week shop, so watch cash and carry promotions and ask for a price held for three to six months.

How much cheese per pizza: portion weights

Work out your pizza food cost

Now do the sum the other way: a 25–30% platform commission on a £14 pizza is £3.50 or more, while upgrading from a budget blend to proper mozzarella costs pennies. Direct, commission-free orders are what pay for the better cheese.

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What you have to tell customers

Milk is one of the 14 allergens: flag it on every cheese pizza, on the menu board and the online menu. Natasha's Law covers food prepacked for direct sale, not pizzas made to order, but allergen information is still mandatory for them.
Imitation cheese: "cheese" is a protected dairy term, so a vegetable-fat analogue can't be called cheese, and where it replaces cheese the substitute must be clearly stated. Budget "pizza topping" sold as mozzarella is exactly what Trading Standards look for.
Protected names: say "buffalo mozzarella" only for Mozzarella di Bufala Campana PDO, and "Parmigiano Reggiano" only for the real thing.

Allergen rules for a takeaway

Vegan and lactose-free options

Lactose-free mozzarella behaves almost like the standard one but is still dairy. Plant-based alternatives melt less and brown poorly: test them at your oven temperature and keep them on one or two dedicated pizzas, labelled "vegan alternative" rather than "vegan cheese" if you want to stay on the safe side.

FAQ

Is pre-grated mozzarella fine for a takeaway?

Yes, most takeaways use it. It melts a little less smoothly than a block you grate yourself because of the anti-caking agent. Keep bags sealed and use them quickly once opened.

Low-moisture or fresh mozzarella?

Low-moisture below 350 °C, fresh above 400 °C. Low-moisture sits at 45–52% water and melts evenly in a deck oven; fresh fior di latte is wetter and needs a fierce oven to drive the water off.

Which cheese browns best?

Drier, fattier cheeses: cheddar, red Leicester and low-moisture mozzarella brown faster than fior di latte or buffalo. A blend gives you colour without losing the stretch.