Consumer Reports' Lowest-Rated Frozen Pizza Is A $5 Find, And It's Been On Shelves Since 1976

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There's a lot to be said for frozen pizzas. They are convenient, cheap, and tend to keep everyone in the house quite happy. Then again, some frozen pizzas are better than others, and a bad one can be an outright disappointment. Luckily, independent testing agencies like Consumer Reports inform readers on how people really feel about specific products. According to the publication, one of the worst frozen pizzas you can pick up is a $5 legacy-brand find: Red Baron Thin & Crispy Crust Five Cheese frozen pizza.

The description on the box keeps the pizza's components front and center: seasoned tomato sauce, mozzarella, cheddar, provolone, parmesan, and asiago cheese on an extra-thin crust. Red Baron is a popular brand that's been around for 50 years, and its Thin & Crispy Crust Five Cheese pizza seems promising enough (many prefer Red Baron to DiGiorno). However, this variety is Consumer Reports' lowest-rated frozen pizza.

The pie received a low-range score for texture, flavor, and nutritional content. Testers felt that the sauce tasted like tomato paste and the seasonings overwhelmed the mildly flavored cheese. The crust was pastry-like, and the nutritional score was very low. Half of this Red Baron pizza contains 530 calories, 24 grams of fat, and 940 milligrams of sodium. To put that into perspective, a full pie would account for 64% of the fat an average adult is meant to consume in a day, and 82% of the sodium.

Recent customer reviews of the Thin & Crispy Five Cheese pizza are scarce online, but there are plenty of harsh takes on Red Baron's Thin & Crispy Pepperoni pizza. A Reddit user said, "Nothing stood out ... For the same price or even a dollar more I could get more pizza, flavor, and better ingredients from a different brand." A Target customer wrote, "This is by far the most disappointing pizza I have ever had. Cooked as instructed, but the pizza came out soggy and burnt at the same time. The sauce was tomato paste."

When Tasting Table tested 10 Red Baron frozen pizzas, our expert wasn't a fan of the Classic Crust Four Cheese, either. They thought the sauce was overwhelming and the cheese didn't melt together uniformly. It wasn't as disappointing as our review of Red Baron's letdown meat-trio pizza, but underwhelming all the same.

Others seem to think Red Baron's Thin & Crispy pizzas are worth it if they're on sale. They typically cost around $4.99 at Target, and deals are often available. One Redditor said, "I won't eat them when they are full price (Bay Area is like $7.99 or so). But I will eat them when they are on special at Safeway, three for $10. Good cheap pizza." If you want additional options, our tester liked the Red Baron Stuffed Crust Four Cheese pizza, and the American Flatbread Tomato Sauce & Three Cheese pizza was one of Consumer Reports' top picks.