• Birds Eye’s is expanding its Steamfresh™ range with four new products – Korean Style Noodles, Malaysian Laksa Style Noodles, Asian Rice and Mexican Rice.
• The launch plays directly into category growth, with Steamfresh™ Meals delivering year on year value growth.1
• Designed for today’s health driven, time poor consumer, each meal offers at least one of your five a day, is non-HFSS, and is ready in minutes.

Birds Eye is expanding its Steamfresh™ range with four new globally inspired products: Korean Style Noodles, Malaysian Laksa Style Noodles, Asian Rice and Mexican Rice. The launch brings bolder flavours and nutritious options to the frozen aisle at a time when consumers are actively seeking convenient meals that don’t sacrifice health or taste.

Data shows just how strongly this demand is shaping behaviour. UK households are preparing 612 million fewer meals from scratch than before lockdown,2 highlighting a shift towards convenient shortcuts that still meet rising health expectations. At the same time, while 66% of shoppers are actively making choices to improve their health,3 as a nation, we have eaten 1.3billion fewer servings of fruit and vegetables compared to 2024.

This tension between nutrition and convenience is where frozen food is winning. Over two thirds of consumers say that frozen food makes trying new cuisines easy,5 with world cuisine occasions, particularly Pan-Asian (+23%), growing rapidly in the in-home occasion space.

Birds Eye’s new Steamfresh™ products sit directly at this intersection of great taste, heath, and ease. Each new product delivers at least one of your five a day, all are non-HFSS, and use Birds Eye’s microwave steaming technology to help retain nutrients and deliver consistent results, every time. Designed to flex around real mealtimes, the range includes sides as well as standalone main meal options, which themselves can be served as a quick, flavour-packed side alongside fresh proteins or other dishes.
Birds Eye’s wider Steamfresh™ portfolio continues to show strong performance, with the range up +10.7% in value year on year, and driving a 15.5% increase in penetration year on year.

Claire Sutton, Marketing Director at Birds Eye, commented, Frozen is undergoing a real step change with shoppers wanting food that is healthy, great tasting and genuinely convenient. We’re seeing this reflected in the strong growth in steaming occasions and continued momentum in our Steamfresh™ Meals range.

These new products strengthen our offer by pairing global flavours with steamed vegetables and perfectly cooked rice or noodles to help deliver meals that are nutritious, delicious and ready in minutes. They help make the frozen aisle more relevant for midweek meal choices and, by strengthening a portfolio that is already outperforming the category, they give retailers a clear opportunity to drive further growth.”
Steamfresh™ Korean Style Noodles and Asian Rice will launch in Tesco from the 9th of March, the Malaysian Laksa Style Noodles and Mexican Rice to follow in ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Iceland.

Cotswold Fayre has announced the appointment of Gary Jordaan as its new Operations Director, further strengthening the company’s Senior Leadership Team as it continues to invest in service excellence and future growth.

Gary is a proven transformation leader with over 20 years’ extensive supply chain and operations experience gained at significantly larger food and drink operators, bringing deep operational expertise across ambient, chilled, and frozen categories. He previously held senior roles at Euro Food Brands, a business with revenues of over £200 million, BOSH! Media, Mars and Friesland Campina, where he worked closely with third-party logistics partners support complex, multi-temperature supply chains.

Commenting on the appointment, Paul Hargreaves, CEO, said: “We are delighted to welcome Gary to Cotswold Fayre. He brings a wealth of experience from larger-scale operations, which will be invaluable as we continue to evolve our business and raise the bar on service for our customers. Gary’s background across ambient, chilled, and frozen, combined with his expertise in working with 3PL partners, will help take our operations to the next level.”

Gary Jordaan added: “I’m excited to be joining Cotswold Fayre at such an important stage in its journey. The business has a strong reputation for quality, sustainability and service, and I’m looking forward to working with the team to strengthen operational capability, support future growth, and ensure we continue to deliver an excellent experience for customers, whilst reducing our footprint on the planet.”

In his role at Cotswold Fayre Gary will focus on supporting sustainable cross-category growth, enhancing service excellence and building scalable processes to support the business’s long-term ambitions.

Following the success of its Price Freeze promotion in December, Bidfood, one of the UK’s leading foodservice providers, is giving customers another way to save with its new Your Favourites cashback offer, running throughout March and April 2026.

In an industry currently facing rising food and energy costs, tight margins, and ongoing supply chain pressures, operators are under more pressure than ever to maintain profitability while delivering consistent quality to customers. This initiative continues Bidfood’s commitment to helping them manage costs, providing up to £100 cashback on a specially selected range of popular products.

The “Your Favourites” cashback offer helps ease these challenges by reducing the cost of essential and popular purchases, allowing businesses to protect their margins and focus on delivering exceptional service.

The promotion features almost 140 products, spanning everyday essentials and customer favourites across multiple categories. Many of these products featured in Bidfood’s recent Price Freeze promotional campaign.

The scheme enables operators to continue benefiting from great value on the products they rely on most, while helping them effectively navigate the ongoing pressures facing the foodservice sector.

Katie Sillars, Head of Commercial Growth Initiatives at Bidfood, said:

“After the positive response to our Price Freeze promotion, we wanted to give operators another way to make meaningful savings on the products they use every day. With ongoing cost pressures and cautious customer spending, this cashback offer helps operators manage their budgets without compromising on quality or choice.

“It’s a practical way to manage food costs, allowing businesses to reinvest in their teams, menus, and customer experience. Every bit of support counts when planning ahead and keeping operations running profitably, and we’re proud to help our customers continue delivering great value to their own customers.”