M&S is celebrating British food with its biggest launch of new dishes outside Christmas. Its novel range of food and drink products include 21st century twists on British classics.

A 40-strong team of M&S experts have been working on the range for over a year and have travelled the length and breadth of the UK, exploring dozens of historical recipe books to create a world-beating and modern British collection.

Popular UK dish Bangers and Mash.

These include British classics such as beer-battered fish and chips to pork sausages and mash, all made with meat and fresh fish from trusted farmers and suppliers.

As to biscuits and confectionery items, forgotten classics like Pontefract cakes and coconut ice have been reinvented. There’s a fun collection of fizzy pop sweets, featuring ginger beer, pink lemonade and cola flavours, and an extensive selection of liquorice allsorts, fruit jellies, sherbet dippers and swirl lollipops.

The experts have also created the high street’s first Battenberg biscuit, a selection box full of UK favourites, including Essex shortbread and Cornish fairings and some must-keep collector’s biscuit tins.

Among the cakes and desserts are British classics with a twist, including Strawberry & Dorset Clotted Cream Pancakes and Lemon & Dorset Clotted Cream Scones.

A selection of teatime biscuits.

The barbecue selection offers various marinades and sauces such as Smokehouse Tomato Sauce, Treacle and Ale Sauce and Marinade, Brown Sauce with Black India pale ale and also Cucumber, Gin and Mint relish.

The ‘food on the move’ range features hand-cooked British pork, sage and cider potato crisps and hand-cooked red, white and blue potato crisps with sea salt.

All products are subject to availability across M&S stores in Sliema, Valletta, The Point, Tigné, Baystreet in St Julian’s, Daniels in Ħamrun and via winedrop.com.