Frozen food sales are continuing to storm ahead, with the category now worth more than £6.2bn and up 4.8% year on year with consistent growth in both value and volume seen each quarter, new Kantar Worldpanel data from the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) shows.

While value growth was seen across almost every category in the 52 weeks to 9 September, the summer heatwave meant that ice cream stole the show, up 13.2% year on year as consumers spent £74m more on it.

The pizza category also saw a steady increase in value of over £30m year on year.

Combined with ice cream, the two categories now represent 24.7% of the total value of the total frozen food retail market.

The savoury food category, which includes frozen bread, savoury bakery and other frozen foods is also up 5.7% in value and 0.6 % in volume over the year.

“More and more people are heading to the frozen food aisles where they know they can get restaurant quality products to enjoy at home,” the BFFF said.

BFFF chief executive John Hyman said: “What we’re seeing is testament to the fact that frozen food, the entire range of available, is ideally placed to tap into the trends underpinning consumer eating habits during the warm seasons.

“Consumers are still buying traditional summer products like ice cream but new product development is driving them to incorporate more savoury products and ingredients into their daily diets, which is good news for the frozen food industry.”