Pasta and pizza pip Shepherd's Pie to become Brit's favourite ready meal

London, Feb 28 (ANI): Pasta and pizza have beaten traditional British dishes like Shepherd's Pie to become the country's most popular ready made meals.

At the same time, sales of TV dinners increased by 9.5 per cent overall as cash-strapped families cut back on restaurant meals and stay in instead.

Sales of Italian chilled meals rose by 14.9 per cent last year, hitting 406.7 million pounds and knocking British cuisine off the top spot it enjoyed in 2010. Its sales rose by only 6.6 per cent, to 390.7 million pounds.

The chilled ready meals sector is now worth 1.2 billion pounds, according to data from market research analysts Kanta Worldpanel, the Daily Mail reported.

Supermarket own-label products, which already account for 92.7 per cent of the market, continue to go from strength to strength. Italian food enjoyed particularly strong growth at Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda.

Outside of the top two, Indian meals came third with sales of 167.5 million pounds, followed by Chinese food on 86 million pounds and Spanish cuisine on 27.9 million pounds.

French ready meals only managed to reach sixth place, on 26.3 million pounds. (ANI)