Consumers swapping from fresh to frozen food

Consumers are swapping from fresh to frozen food amid rising grocery prices, states a recent report citing retailers’ feedback.

As shoppers turn to frozen food, demand is seen strongest for items such as frozen chicken, for which volumes rose by 5.9 per cent in the 12 weeks to 20 March, according to the research from Kantar. Sales of frozen prepared foods, including ready meals, pizzas and chips, increased by 2.6 per cent.

Frozen food volumes held steady, even as shoppers were buying less. Total grocery volumes fell by 4 per cent, while the volume of frozen goods bought was unchanged, the data for the same period showed, according to BBC.

 frozen food was doing “notably better” than fresh at the moment, Fraser McKevitt, the head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar UK, told the BBC. “And some of that is clearly to do with the cost of living,” he added.

A quarter of UK shoppers say they are buying more frozen food, according to a separate survey of 2,000 British adults by the pollster Opinium on behalf of Zipzero, an app that collects shoppers’ receipts data in exchange for cash.

The poll also found that 30 per cent of people are buying more food from the reduced section of supermarkets to try to save money, and 21 per cent are buying less meat and fish.

Waitrose, M&S and Iceland all told the BBC frozen food is rising in popularity, while Tesco has also seen shoppers switching from fresh to frozen. The frozen food specialist Iceland has also performed strongly in the battle for market share, increasing it to 2.3 per cent of UK grocery spending in the 12-week period, Kantar said.