Iceland are selling posh lobsters without the shell – but they come at a price
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ICELAND is to start selling whole, raw lobsters - already shelled - for £15.
It's the first time a UK supermarket has sold lobsters in this way and the frozen food retailer hopes customers will be able to start cooking the shellfish without any hassle.
At this price, the lobsters, weighing about 140g, are considerably more expensive than the ones already in their shell that the likes of Aldi sell at Christmas for £6, or the pair of lobster tails that Asda sells for £12.
But Iceland is confident that it will be a hit with British shoppers, many of whom see lobster as a key part of a Christmas buffet or meal.
Sales of lobster jumped 32 per cent last year, helped by a price war which saw Lidl sell lobster for just £2.99 for a limited time in December.
Also, Iceland customers have embraced the increasingly upmarket range of food it has started selling.
Over the last two years, it has launched frozen chateaubriand, Dover sole and zuppa di pesce, a seafood casserole made from squid, hake, mussels and clams.
Last month it extended its Luxury premium range into non-chilled and non-frozen items including a granola and sourdough crumpets.
The lobsters, which have their shells blasted off by high-pressure water, are then frozen.
Neil Nugent, the executive chef at Iceland, who has developed many of its upmarket dishes, said: “We think it’s a revolutionary product and it’s the first time any supermarket has done something like this. It’s a real game changer.”
He said the high price was worth it because you no longer had to battle to get the meat out of the shell.
“It’s time consuming and it’s tricky. I am a chef so I can do it, but home cooks trying to get the meat out of the claw is painful to watch,” he explained.
He added that many cooks were nervous about having to plunge raw, whole lobsters in their shells - or even just tails - into boiling water.
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“It can make the whole thing quite watery. With the de-shelled ones, you just defrost them and pop them into pan with some hot butter. It takes no more than two minutes.”
Iceland is already the country’s biggest seller of lobster.
Even though just £2 in every £100 spent in British supermarkets is at Iceland, the chain sells half of all the lobsters in the UK, with £11 uncooked lobster tails, and whole cooked lobster for £2.49.
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