Seachill has launched a chilled rival to frozen cook-in-the-bag ranges from Birds Eye and Young's in a bid to take sales of its The Saucy Fish Co brand to £10m in its first year.

The four-strong Ovenable Bag range (rsp: £4 each), which marks The Saucy Fish Co's first move into shellfish, will go into 320 Tesco stores this week.

The range comes in cod fillets with lemon and pink peppercorn sauce; king prawns with a garlic and herb sauce; king prawns with a coriander and lime sauce and a hint of chilli; and salmon fillets with a sweet chilli dressing variants. It is packaged in oven-ready foil bags.

Seachill had identified reluctance to handle fish as a barrier to purchase, said sales and marketing director Simon Smith.

"Consumers want to be able to cook fabulous fish and the No Touch, No Smell, No Fuss solution delivers exactly what they want with the quality that chilled fish delivers versus other offerings."

Frozen cook-in-the-bag products failed to deliver on quality as the sauce or butter did not mix well with the fish juices, he claimed. "We've got a product where the butter combines with the juices from the fish and gives a wonderful glossy sauce."

The Saucy Fish Co's existing Fish & Sauce range had achieved a 45% repeat purchase rate in just four months, he added.