Frozen food range

The range included  5lb ‘Home Freezer Packs’  of vegetables such as peas, beans and crinkle cut chips. There were also bulk packs of meat, fish portions and a huge range of frozen desserts, like Danish pastries, jam doughnuts, ‘banana dream pie’ and the ever popular Arctic Roll. There were even bulk packs of uncooked ‘Dinnodog’ meat for the family pet.

Although the emphasis was on bulk buying of basic foods to fill large ‘chest’ style home freezers, for the more adventurous, early price lists included ‘continental specialities’  such as lasagne, pizzas and ‘chicken espagnole’.

A 1975 price list includes the following ‘speciality dishes’, which were only stocked at larger freezer centres:

• Melon balls
• Lemon sole in prawn and mushroom sauce
• Duckling a L’Orange
• Chicken a la Crème
• Beef Bourguignon
• Escalope of veal Cordon Bleu
• Breaded scampi

By the late 1970s, the growth in popularity of fridge-freezers increased the demand for frozen ready meals, goods in smaller pack sizes and convenience ingredients like frozen pastry. Sainsbury’s first chilled ready meals were introduced in 1983 - the original dishes were three ‘dinner party’ dishes fashionable at the time, Boeuf Bourgignon, Chicken Chasseur and Coq au Vin.

A 1983 advertisement for Cod & Prawn Pie with Grapes and Curried Seafood Pasta shows the dishes pictured with a glass of wine and the slogan ‘Sainsbury’s invite you to stay in and eat out’. These early ready meals were ahead of their time, as the market proved to be for simple supper dishes, rather than for home entertaining.

Find out more about convenience foods