British food has now overtaken Italian cuisine as the UK's fastest growing cuisine as shoppers increasingly head for traditional food products like sausage and mash, shepherds pie and Lancashire hotpot.

"The big change for British cuisine has come about because the decline forced food suppliers back to the drawing board to rethink their recipes" said Kathryn Bettles, lead food development manager at Tesco's.

British food having surpassed its Italian rival is now second only to Indian food, which remains Britain's food of choice. The British ready made meals market is now worth £221m (€326m) sales data from TNS reveals.

The Tesco's range based on UK favorites will include classics such as beef joint with roasted onion and gravy and turkey joint with sage and onion gravy.

"In the last few years, ready made meals have evolved into the 'ready-to-cook' format so that people feel they are actually cooking from scratch," said Bettles.

Tesco is the UK's leading supermarket with over 250,000 employees and 1,799 stores nation wide.