Kepak Convenience Foods is going after the breakfast market with the launch of Rustlers All Day Breakfast Sausage Muffin.

The new microwavable breakfast product features a sausage patty in a muffin bun, topped with cheese and tomato ketchup.

The product concept was already “well established in foodservice” and with an rrp of £1.50, it would be highly competitive with McDonald’s and Greggs, Kepak said.

“Last year we conducted our largest ever shopper study and learned that despite not having a breakfast product in our range, breakfast was already an important consumption occasion for the brand,” Adrian Lawlor, Kepak marketing and business development director added.

 “The shopper study highlighted that Rustlers competes with high street foodservice operators for a number of consumption occasions, in particular lunch, helping our retail partners to win footfall from the quick service retailers.

“Breakfast gives us, and our retail partners, the opportunity to build on this, as it’s an occasion that is performing exceptionally well on the high street.”

The new product will roll out across the grocery and convenience channels from early April.

“We’re recommending that retailers launch the product in their food to go fixture in order to capitalise on the opportunity to target the high street, although we believe a significant secondary option exists for planned breakfast on the main fixture alongside the rest of the Rustlers range,” Lawlor added.

The launch comes as the UK’s micro-snacking category is valued at more than £120m with one in five households now buying into the category.