Walmart-owned UK retailer Asda plans to drop fish and meat counters in its stores, replacing them with "food to go" formats, including sushi.

The retailer plans to roll out at least 35 of the new formats by the end of the first quarter and 150 by the end of the year, the retailer confirmed to Undercurrent News. The story was first reported by The Grocer. 

Asda will begin to move fish and meat counters to the other formats from February, according to a statement. 

The retailer's food-to-go counters will see products such as peri peri chicken, pizza and sushi added to stores. Asda has been adding Sushi Daily counters to some stores since late 2018. 

Asda "successfully trialed" a number of alternatives to traditional meat and fish counters across 13 stores last year, where customers were given the chance to try a variety of new ranges including hot chicken and pie offers, along with sushi by Sushi Daily, all ready to take away and eat, the retailer said. 

The retailer is increasing its pre-pack offering in fish and meat as a result of the move, it said. 

The move from Asda echos a big shift made by Tesco at the start of 2019, when the UK's largest retailer announced the decision to remove fresh food counters, including fish, in about 90 of its stores, but remain trading in about 700 more. Tesco is also boosting its "grab and go" offering. At the end of the year, YO! Sushi announced plans to roll out counters in 50 UK Tesco stores nationwide [...]