Food - Drink
What The Tiny Plastic Table In Your Pizza Box Actually Does
By BRIANNA CORLEY
When ordering pizza, your takeout will most likely come with a white piece of plastic in the middle of your pie. This unassuming table-shaped gadget, affectionately known as the pizza saver, is more important to pizza delivery than you may have imagined, and can actually save your piping-hot pie from ruin.
Pizza delivery once had a disappointing downside: since pizzas are very hot, rising steam can cause the cardboard delivery box to collapse, meaning that the surface of the pizza would stick to the box's lid, ruining the pie. Carmela Vitale, an average mother who frequently ordered delivery pizza, decided to remedy this issue.
In 1983, Vitale applied for a patent for her invention, called the package saver or pizza saver, and her patent was approved in 1985. Today, countless pizzerias use these plastic "tables" to prop up the lids of delivery boxes and stop them from squishing freshly-baked pizzas, ensuring that your pie arrives in perfect condition.