UK Experiences Large Increase in Frozen Food Purchases

Convenience truly is king in the UK it seems, as new frozen food products are continuously being rolled out with the most simple of instructions attached. “Place in oven at X degrees for Y minutes” or “pierce cover and place in microwave at X power for Y minutes” and suddenly you’ve got hearty dinners of Thai green curry and rice or a piping hot pasta carbonara.

It’s clearly been a good year for frozen food because in the UK frozen food sales have increased by 5.8% up to £5.6bn. Roads are becoming more populated with refrigerated vans throughout the country as delivery of frozen food continues to supply companies in abundance.

How to Keep Frozen Food in the Forest

There’s nothing quite like packing that tent into your boot and heading out into the wilderness for a weekend away. There are a few options when it comes to meal times out in the woods. Popping some frozen food meals into a cooler bag is the most common method but you could always opt for the more primal, eat-what-you-catch option. Taking frozen food away with you, however, can be a tricky business but you can always find ways to keep it fresh and prolong its life for those slightly lengthier trips. Here are a few tips to get the most out of your frozen food when you’re not being followed by a freezer van and you only have your trusted cooler bag at your disposal. 

Greggs Frozen Food Products Combat Pastry Tax

After a highly successful product trial for its frozen food products, the food-to-go bakery Greggs has released its full frozen food range of nine savoury and sweet products into UK Iceland stores. The new frozen food range will be distributed alongside their current ready-made products to satisfy out and about and cooking at home customers. So far, Greggs will manufacture and make available their much loved steak bakes, chicken bakes, sausage and bean melts, and bacon and cheese wraps. Greggs is confident that their new frozen food product range will enjoy the same success as their bake-at-home four-pack of frozen sausages released last July at ten selected Liverpool Iceland stores.

From a food logistics point of view, Greggs as a bakery and frozen food company makes sense. By partnering with UK frozen food supplier Iceland, Greggs products are being made more accessible to everyone. Furthermore, extensive monitoring by the Greggs’ executive team has shown that fresh, ready-to-eat sales from the bakery have not decreased during the introduction of the new frozen food products. This effectively means that Greggs has tapped into an entirely new take-home-and-cook frozen food market.

Save Money with Frozen Food

Frozen food is rising in popularity for the savings it offers households looking to squeeze through hard times. For stretching out budgets of the household, frozen food products offer dependability when it comes to sustaining long shelf lives. Of course you need to store and package it right for the foods to be practical, but it’s not that difficult. Here are some tips for saving via using frozen food companies and their products.

The first thing to remember with frozen food suppliers is to read fully the labels they offer. If you’re buying fish, for example, look out for the sign that states ‘previously frozen.’ While temperature controlled transport is more than adequate to prolong shelf life through freezing, you don’t want to have to refreeze anything you don’t need to. You’ll also save cash on food that’s only been frozen once, but be sure to leave the product overnight in the fridge to defrost before preparing. When it comes to labels, look out for what you’re paying for with juice. If a label on your juice reads ‘concentrate’ be sure you’re not paying for water; find the unprepared concentrates and add the water yourself because you’ll likely end up saving 30-50% of the price. Also check the labels of frozen food meals for an expected shelf life and go for the longer term investments.

March is Frozen Food Month

For those thrifty grocery shoppers who love stocking up for the winter (or whenever), March is the perfect opportunity. Apparently March is frozen food month and you can be sure many supermarkets and grocery shops are going to be onboard with savings and specials. Be sure to check out the local newspapers and grocery store websites for coupons that’ll maximise your savings on frozen food products. Let’s take a look as some of the best qualities and history of frozen food dinners.

Frozen Food Combats Waste

An interesting statistic has just been revealed by the BFFF, the British Frozen Food Federation; a fifth of all food purchased is destined for the bin. In a world racked by countries on the verge of starvation it’s sad to think that so much food is being wasted or ends up in landfills. While the BFFF obviously stand to gain from their recommendation, apparently virtually zero waste would occur is more British consumers opt for frozen food dinners. Statistics revealed 32% of the waste comes from expired bread which when refrigerated extends shelf life considerably; vegetables and potatoes account for 24% while fish and meat make up 13% of the total. All of these products would benefit from frozen food practices. UK frozen foods have an estimated shelf life of 12 months or more depending on the product and method of refrigeration.

Frozen Food is Hot Business

The general feeling surrounding the food markets since 2009 is that it’s become stagnant, yet frozen food markets continue to show growth. The amount of food outlets has remained fairly consistent since 2009, yet the amount of food ordered from these places has taken an approximate 1.2% dip. The only exception to this rule has been frozen food products. Caterers and chefs continue to source heavily from frozen food suppliers and these products have taken the lion’s share with almost 22% of all food sales according the Horizon report. Frozen transport is thriving with restaurants and chefs food supply totalling at least a third of all their orders. On top of all this good news, Manchester Food Research Centre offers that chefs can save up to a third of the cost of making a meal from scratch by using frozen food meals. With the rough time the fast food sector is having, every bit of savings help in the long term and in the UK frozen food could host the answer. It seems chefs already realize this with the way frozen food companies are distributing the product off the shelves.