Supermarkets have been accused of promoting irresponsible drinking by selling alcohol at a cheaper price than bottled water .
Campaginers have hit out at Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys after they were all found to be retailing beer at just over 5p per 100ml – 3p less than the typical price of a 100ml bottle of brand-name mineral water .
They claimed the retailers were encouraging binge drinking by using cheap alcohol to lure customers into their stores while ignoring the associated health dangers of excessive alcohol consumption .
Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said that government attempts to tackle binge-drinking were being undermined by supermarket price cuts.
“Unless they tackle the problem of cheap alcohol, they are fighting a losing battle,” he said. “The evidence shows young people and harmful drinkers are drawn to very cheap alcohol .
“Supermarkets sell alcohol at a loss because they know it gets people into the stores. A lot of these sales are irresponsible.”
A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association added: “It is a real worry that you can buy alcohol cheaper than mineral water . We have a huge problem with alcohol abuse in the UK, so we want a clampdown on these cut-throat price deals.”
Last week, England’s chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson blasted the “cheap availability” of booze at supermarkets and called for the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing for alcohol .
He claimed that increasing the cost of an average six-pack of lager to £6 – a minimum of 50p per unit of alcohol – would save up to 3,400 lives a year and reduce hospital admissions by 100,000.
