From Freezer To Posh Nosh: Fish Fingers At 60

To some, they are a delicacy served in the poshest restaurants in the land.

But for millions of Britons they are a must-have convenience food found in supermarket freezer sections up and down the country.

It's 60 years since Birds Eye introduced frozen fish fingers to the mass market, but time has been good to the breaded classic with more than half a billion (572,030,831) consumed last year alone.

But is the humble fish finger responsible for Britain's convenience-food culture? Food historian, Seren Cherrington Green certainly thinks so.

"Earlier in the 50s, anything out of a tin or out of a packet, was seen as bad house-keeping," she told Sky News.

"This (fish fingers) was seen as rather a good thing."

She says in the decades that followed, there was an increasing acceptance and usage of frozen meals.

Ms Cherrington also says the introduction of fish fingers may have contributed to gender equality in the home.

"Using things like fish fingers allowed women to have more time to themselves, rather than slaving over the stove," she said.

Shopping has changed a lot since the 1950s with retailers offering an ever-expanding range of quick cook food.

Though some would argue fish fingers were the mother of all convenience goods, shelves today are filled with everything from ready-basted quick cook roast potatoes to steam-in-the-bag vegetables.

And even though Birds Eye introduced fish fingers, no company has a monopoly on what has become a firm British icon. Budget lines can be picked up for under a pound.

Fish fingers were not unheard of in Britain when Birds Eye launched them to the mass market in the UK.

The Tamworth Herald of 30 June 1900 published "a very useful breakfast dish" recipe instructing readers to mix fish with rice and cook till "golden brown".

But Birds Eye was the first to take advantage of freezers popping up in kitchens to bring this rarely cooked home dish to tables everywhere today.