A HUGE increase in alcohol and junk food sales is revealed today in a damning report on the nation’s diet. Alcohol sales have grown by almost 10 per cent in a year, increasing fears of a growing culture of binge drinking.

The increase will alarm ministers before a shake-up of the licensing laws, due in November, which will allow 24-hour drinking in pubs and allow shops to sell alcohol around the clock.

The Department of Health said yesterday that 13 children a day are being taken to hospital after drinking sessions and doctors report growing numbers of young people with liver disease.

In the decade to 2004, the amount spent on alcohol drunk at home increased by nearly 50 per cent to £40 billion a year, the report, by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, says. The snapshot of consumption patterns appears in the Family Food — Expenditure and Food Survey 2003-2004. It is based on diaries collected by 16,965 people from 7,048 households for a typical fortnight.

It makes grim reading for Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, and Deidre Hutton, chair of the Food Standards Agency, who have to tackle drinking and obesity.

The boom area for alcohol sales is spirits and alcopops, which are popular with young people. Sales are up almost 11 per cent, with the average person drinking 0.3 pints of such drinks a week, compared with 0.25 pints two years ago. The increase in drinking is such that every adult in the country drinks more than a third of a pint of pure alcohol a week.

Lager and continental beers were the most popular drinks in 2003-2004 with 0.6 pints consumed each week by the over-14s, up 15.9 per cent on 2002-2003. Wine consumption is also up, with people drinking 0.5 pints of wine a week, compared with 0.4 pints two years ago, a rise of 7.5 per cent.

The Conservatives said last night that the survey was a damning indictment of the Government’s failure to tackle public health.

Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, said: “The Government’s nanny state approach has not worked and people have rebelled against it.

“The figures are really disturbing. Unfortunately we are a society that is using alcohol a lot more, but people need to do it moderately and sensibly. People must know the risks and consequences of excessive alcohol and poor diet. We need action now.”

Soaring junk food sales will also raise concern. A million children under 16 are classified as obese, despite government healthy eating campaigns. Sales of fresh fruit and vegetables are down by nearly 2 per cent, suggesting that a campaign to persuade people to eat five portions a day has failed. The average amount of fresh produce eaten each day is 3.7 portions, compared to 3 a day in 1974.

Even though the calorific intake of meals is down from 2,534 calories a day in 1974 to 2,073 in 2004, food is loaded with higher amounts of fat, saturated fat and sugar. Sales of soft drinks have increased by 10 per cent.

The Department of Health said: “Government cannot tell people how to live their lives or force them to be healthy but we try to give them the information to make healthy choices in their everyday lives.”

A limit on junk food advertising on children’s television and a new system of labelling to alert people to the health value of various foods are planned. A “sensible drinking” campaign is also under discussion.

Drinking guidelines suggest that a man should drink no more than three to four units of alcohol a day, and women no more than two or three units. A unit is a 125ml glass of wine, or half a pint of beer.

Professor Tim Lang, head of food policy at City University, called the report very bad news. “This is very depressing,” he said. “The Government wants to tackle obesity but at this rate of improvement, large numbers of the population are going to die prematurely.”

Brigid McKevith, of the British Nutrition Foundation, said: “The problem is that we know what we should be doing but we don’t do it.”

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