Frozen food and in particular, frozen fish, is perfectly poised to meet the needs of families today.

Now worth £753m, frozen seafood is the biggest and most buoyant sector of the whole frozen category – currently growing at 5%.

In the last year, Young's frozen fish, currently worth £176m, saw a 15% year on year increase with particularly strong sales in Prawns, Scampi and Fish Fingers.

For the first time in recent memory the figures show that frozen fish has outpaced that of chilled.

Recent market data shows that frozen seafood is benefiting from consumers' reassessment of the frozen food category as a whole – reversing the image that frozen gained in the 1970s and 80s as mainly the place to find budget, lower quality food.

The research shows people increasingly switching from chilled to frozen, particularly for fish 'ingredients' to cook with - such as prawns. The freezer is being reborn as the modern 'larder' to store good quality ingredients – and with less waste.

Jim Cane, managing director of Young's, says, "We're very upbeat about the future of frozen. The market is showing consistent growth and the message is getting across about the intrinsic benefits of frozen as an entirely natural and sensible way to preserve the very best qualities of food. Consumers are appreciating that frozen can be equally as good and natural as the chilled equivalent."

Recent strong brand advertising for fish has also helped to turn around consumer perceptions of the frozen category, historically perceived as a budget and inferior alternative to chilled. The positioning of the frozen food aisle in-store and the presentation of the product are also contributing factors.

As Jim Cane says, "Frozen seafood is perfectly in tune with the consumer need for great food that is readily available, with less waste. The freezer is the perfect solution to preserving freshness and nutrition, particularly for ingredients people want to cook with like fish and vegetables. It's also a better way to manage the supply chain from distant parts of the world – shipping frozen foods will become even important in the future as air-freight becomes less acceptable because of its environmental impact."

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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