Brits love organic foods

Sales of organic food - once ridiculed as knobbly vegetables for health freaks - have passed the £1billion a year barrier.

The organic food market in the UK grew 10 per cent last year, around twice the rate for non-organic products, says a report out today.

This makes Britons the third biggest buyers of "chemical free" food on earth behind the US and Germany.

Although organic food still only accounts for £1 in every £100 spent in supermarkets, the Soil Association report found a big rise in homegrown produce.

Imports have fallen from 70 to 56 per cent of total organic sales since 2000.