MasterChef host Gregg Wallace urges Brits to eat frozen veg as he collects MBE

MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace urged the public to use tinned or frozen vegetables to combat food shortages after collecting an MBE at a ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The 58-year-old broadcaster, who fronts the popular cooking show and its spin-offs alongside John Torode, has been recognised for services to food and charity.

Born in Peckham in south-east London, Wallace sold vegetables on a council estate before beginning his career in the Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market.

He started George Allan's Greengrocers in 1989 and has gone on to have a successful broadcasting career, presenting shows including Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4, Saturday Kitchen, Eat Well For Less, Inside The Factory, Turn Back Time, Harvest and Supermarket Secrets.

Asked about vegetable shortages, Mr Wallace told the PA News Agency: "It's got me relooking at preserved vegetables - tinned, frozen. They are not an inferior item.

"I live in a house with a beautiful Italian, I don't know where we would be without tinned tomatoes, tinned beans. Borlotti I mean, not Heinz."

He urged the public to "get into your veg".

"There is nothing healthier and more filling than vegetables," he told PA.

"Learn more and more veg recipes. It is so good for you, it's got no fat in it and it's so filling."

He added that if you can cook pasta, couscous and rice with vegetables then "a whole world of calorie possibilities across five continents has just opened up to you".