Dieters were up early this morning for the launch of Slimming World’s first ever food range.

Frozen ready meals, sausages and meatballs, all 'syn' free on the Slimming World diet, went on sale in Ashford’s Iceland store at 8.30am.

Member Susanna Aliano, from Ashford, arrived at the High Street shop at opening time ready to buy items from the range.

She said: “I expected there to be queues. I’m sure everyone will be stocking up.

"We’ve been waiting for this for years, as Slimming World has never done a range before.”

Vanessa Knowles has been with Slimming World for two and a half years. She said: “It’s not so much the meals, it’s the sausages for me. I still like cooking my own dinners, but the ready meals are good for people on their own, or nurses.”

Available meals, which cost £3, include chicken tikka masala, Singapore noodles, pork sausages, sweet potato curry and roasted vegetable pasta.

Joan Samuels, who has lost 12 and a half pounds in three weeks on the diet, said of the new range: “Living on your own these are just brilliant, as you don’t have to worry about cooking.”

There are 7,000 Slimming World members in Kent, hundreds of them in Ashford.

Leader Julie Noonan said 600 people have become members of the 14 groups that run in Ashford and surrounding areas since Christmas.

She said: “The hype around these is the portion sizes and that they are free foods.

"They are for when you don’t have time to cook. But the recipes are on the back so members can do their own.

“It’s taken a while because Slimming World wanted to get it right.”

Store manager Andrew Heron was re-stocking the freezer containing the products by 9am.

He said: “We knew it would be busy. We’ve known about it since just after Christmas but didn’t get the dates until January.

"This is our biggest launch since the Greggs range came out.”