Sales of the canned cooked meat Spam have hit record figures for the seventh consecutive year.

They have increased by 4.2% this year, according to Nielsen, and this has helped Hormel, the company that makes the iconic brand, deliver record sales of £2.65bn in the three months to the end of October.

A spokesman for the company said: “Sales have been very strong because of the pandemic as people stock up. It is hard times, sometimes people like a bit of comfort and to hark back to the good old days.”

“The Spam brand delivered its seventh consecutive year of record growth,” Hormel’s chief executive Jim Snee said.

“We are also beginning work on another expansion for the Spam family of products scheduled to be operational in 2023,” he added.

Outside the US, Spam is hugely popular in Asia and has become a staple product for many dishes.

In South Korea, the US army introduced the product during the Korean War.

It has since gone on to be part of South Korean culture and is one of the main ingredients of one of the country’s favourite dishes –  budae jjigae, or army stew.