If you are of a certain age, you may have heard a fact that sounded like something out of a meme: pizzas legally are vegetables. The truth is a bit more complicated. No surprise there.

For starters, this is specific to the United States of America. The origin of the “fact” dates back to 2011. The concern is primarily related to food manufacturers and their ability to continue to market pizza to schools to serve during lunch. What literally happened was that Congress was voting on a bill for the annual budget of the Department of Agriculture. After some lobbying from the frozen food industry, which did not want to see a cut to their revenue stream due to restrictions to more starchy products. Specifically, this was in reference to meals that were subsidized by the American government.

The end result was a carve out that classified pizza as a vegetable (insofar as subsidized school lunches are concerned) if two tablespoons of tomato sauce are added. Of course, the carve out sounds absurd, so it gained traction with the news. Soon enough, it mutated into its present form.