In many languages, the word pita refers not to flatbread, but to flaky pastries: see börek for them. Not to be confused with Pihta. In the United Kingdom, Greek bread feta stuffed dates used for pocket versions such as the Greek pita, and are used for barbecues to a souvlaki wrap. Pita has roots in the prehistoric flatbreads of the Middle East.

There is evidence from about 14,500 years ago, during the Stone Age, that the Natufian people in what is now Jordan made a kind of flatbread from wild cereal grains. The first mention of the word in English cited in the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1936. Hypotheses also exist for Germanic or Illyrian intermediaries. Serbo-Croatian languages of the countries comprising Former Yugoslavia, the word pita is used in a general sense meaning pie.

Egypt, such as eish fino and eish merahrah. Modern commercial pita bread is prepared on advanced automatic lines. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.

Pita can be used to scoop sauces or dips, such as hummus, or to wrap kebabs, gyros, or falafel in the manner of sandwiches. It can also be cut and baked into crispy pita chips. In Cyprus, pita is typically rounder, fluffier and baked on a cast-iron skillet. It is used for souvlakia, sheftalia, halloumi with lountza, and gyros. In Israel, Druze pita is very popular.

Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen: A Culinary Journey Through Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Composition of foods: baked products : raw, processed, prepared. United States Department of Agriculture, Nutrition Monitoring Division. Little Foods of the Mediterranean: 500 Fabulous Recipes for Antipasti, Tapas, Hors D’Oeuvre, Meze, and More. The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. Cereal Grains: Laboratory Reference and Procedures Manual. Archaeologists find world’s oldest bread and new evidence of sophisticated cooking dating back 14,000 years”.