Ditto when you go for frozen over fresh chicken wings.

Here are the numbers: Chilled pork fillets cost $16 per kg at the market, but frozen ones cost $8; chilled chicken wings go at $7 per kg, but just $4.60 frozen.

Price-conscious as Singaporeans are, they have seemed slow to see the math.

Amid globally rising food prices, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pointed out last week that buying frozen food was a good way to cope.

Mr Jack Koh, who heads the Meat Traders' Association, confirmed that frozen meats are up to 15 per cent cheaper to import because they are cheaper to produce and package; and because they are frozen, there is less of a rush to ship them.

Those savings can be passed on to the consumer, he said.

It was also ironical, PM Lee noted, that shoppers insist on buying chilled meats enough to last several days, only to freeze the lot since they do not go grocery shopping every day.

'So why not buy it pre-frozen, at half the price?' he exclaimed.

Doing just that has saved housewife Madam Chen Ah Kee a bundle.

The 60-year-old who cooks for her family of five buys frozen chicken and fish. She spends about $10 during each of her twice-weekly trips to the NTUC FairPrice in Ang Mo Kio, half of which goes to frozen fish fillets and chicken parts.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.