Inflation has begun to shift buying behaviors at the grocery store, as buyers begin to show a preference for frozen foods over fresh food.

Frozen food maker Saffron Road has noted an uptick in sales, as the frozen food category has surged 230% this year.

“The last six months, we’ve been on a tear,” Adnan Durrani, Saffron Road CEO, told Yahoo Finance. He added they are seeing, “record months, every month.”

Durrani added, that historically, “fresh usually always outpaces frozen, but what we’re seeing now is a dramatic shift.”

He attributed the shift in behavior to several factors. “Frozen is nature’s pause button,” Durrani said, because they, “preserve that freshness,” and have, “over a year shelf life.”

He also noted that throughout the pandemic, consumers, “were very concerned about the the poor performance of fresh. The sell-by dates got shortened because of the supply chain. People were also making fewer trips to the store, so items were sitting on the shelf for quite a while.”

Added to that is the fact that inflation continues to drive price increases, causing consumers to choose cheaper options, with less potential for waste. In that light, frozen food will be cheaper due to mass production, can be stored longer in store with less loss due to spoilage, and will store longer with less waste for the consumer.

New data also underscores the jump in various frozen food items with market research firm Mordor Intelligence reporting that COVID-19 “positively impacted the frozen food market.”

According to a new report by market research firm Mordor Intelligence, which cited the American Frozen Food Institute, frozen food products underwent a 21% increase in sales in 2020 compared to 2019.

Another recent study from IRI and 210 Analytics, examined rising seafood prices and noted how frozen seafood sales jumped 2.8% year-over-year last month, while sales of fresh seafood sank 11.8% over the same time period.

“Frozen and canned have two advantages over fresh seafood during inflationary times like these,” 210 Analytics Principal Anne-Marie Roerink said, “The number-one advantage is shelf-life — whereas fresh seafood needs to be used or frozen within a few days of purchase, frozen and canned seafood have little to no waste.”

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), as much as 40% of all food in the US is wasted with fresh vegetables, fruit and bread generating 87% of food waste.

“A lot of folks are really conscious of [food waste] now — looking at their grocery bills, looking at how much they really throw away, looking at what they keep. Frozen has become a go-to in terms of reducing that problem,” Roerick explained.

Meanwhile inflation continues to get worse. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 8.3% in April compared to a year ago. Food prices rose 9.4%, with the at-home category rising 10.8% — the highest rise since 1980.

Prices continue to rise not just because of higher prices in food and ingredients, but also packaging, shipping, gasoline, and fertilizer costs.