Frozen food retailer Iceland has unveiled the first supermarket aisle dedicated to food designed to be cooked in air fryers, as more families turn to the appliances in the cost of living crisis.
The specialist aisle will have 287 items with instructions on how to cook them in an air fryer, including Greggs sausage rolls and steak bakes, cod fillets, chicken fillets and French fries.
The aisle - which will only operate a week to gauge customer demand - is inside Iceland's Food Warehouse outlet in Charlton, London. Research by consumer group Which? found that around 46% of households have bought an air fryer in the last five years, with over half saying they use air fryers multiple times a week. A fifth of households use their air fryer every day.
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Figures from Leatherhead Food Research found that ownership is higher when there are children in the home (37%), and it reaches 51% for households with three or more children. Of the UK households that don’t currently own an air fryer, 22% plan to buy one in the next 12 months.
However, three quarters of owners of Brits want to see air fryer cooking instructions on food packaging and say they would cook more with them if timings were included on cooking instructions labels. Iceland has previously said it would update cooking methods on its packaging, and has so far made the change on almost 300 items.
Richard Walker, executive chairman of Iceland Foods and The Food Warehouse, said: “We pride ourselves on knowing exactly what our customers coming through our store doors are looking for, matching their changing shopping trends with fresh ideas.
“Introducing the world’s first air fryer aisle at our Food Warehouse is another exciting example. As the popularity of air fryer cooking grows, this aisle will give customers easy access to products that work perfectly in this time and energy-saving cooking appliance.”
According to Leatherhead’s survey, most adults who own an air fryer say they cook chips in it (73%). However, the appliances are suitable for a wide range of foods. It found the top ten products for air frying are:
- Chips (73%)
- Potatoes (48%)
- Breaded chicken products (47%)
- Sausages (44%)
- Chicken (44%)
- Breaded fish products (42%)
- Fish (26%)
- Vegetables (25%)
- Beef burgers (24%)
- Bacon (24%)
