Ice cream sales have shot through the roof in Britain, thanks to an almighty heatwave, leaving producers working flat out to meet the insatiable demand of consumers, says www.foodnavigator.com.

Ice-cream makers were jumping for joy as temperatures across much of the UK soared to 37°C last week, higher than on parts of the Mediterranean coast. "It's a bit of a godsend for the trade because we had a very difficult start to the year," Mark Gossage, Chief Executive of the Ice Cream Alliance (ICA), told DairyReporter.com.

The industry hasn't yet counted its mounting pile of pound coins, but "generally speaking sales on a hot, sunny day will be five or six times higher than an average day," one very cheerful Gossage said.

Supermarkets have been quicker to value Britain's ice cream boom. A spokesperson for Sainsbury's, Britain's third largest supermarket, said sales last week were up 60% on the same time in 2005. It sold 3.4 million tubs of ice cream, making last week easily one of its best ever for ice cream sales.

Figures from Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket chain, told a similar story. The firm said it had provisionally sold 1.5 million litres of ice cream last week.

For the complete story, go to http://www.foodnavigator.com