The Big Prawn Co is pushing the boat out with some innovative NPD for this year’s “summer of celebration”, launching four new seafood products aimed at the snacking and canapé market.

The company has developed Shellfish Jelly Shots - chilled crayfish, mussels and prawn suspended in boozy jelly - which it plans to launch into UK retailers in time for the Jubilee and Olympics this summer.

The chilled shots, which have a shelf life of 21 days, come in packs of 12 (rsp: £4.99) each containing three flavours: Crayfish Margarita, Mussels Bloody Mary and Prawn Mojito. “They’re a bit like Marmite - you either love them or hate them - but we’ve had a great reaction so far,” said sales director Craig Harrison, who unveiled the shots at the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels this week.

“The main party food season is around Christmas, so we’re looking to do a big push towards the end of November, but we’re also hoping retailers will be picking these up for the summer,” he added.

The Big Prawn Co is also launching frozen shellfish mousses with blinis (rsp: £4.99), chilled tapas-themed snap packs of seafood cocktails (crayfish tails with chorizo and red pepper, mussels puttanesca, king prawns with salsa verde and king prawns with tzatziki rsp: £4.49) and a pot of premium prawn cocktail with tzatziki.

All the lines are sold under the Big Prawn Co. brand, but the prawn cocktail is also going into Morrisons’ own-label range on 16 June.

The launches come during an aggressive growth phase for the company. Last November, it secured a contract to supply frozen shellfish to Waitrose fish counters and it recently scored an own-label deal with Morrisons, under which it will supply five prawn cocktail products - including the new tzatziki variant - from June.

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