SOARING numbers of people in Britain are going without food due to the cost-of-living crisis, according to damning new research.

New analysis from the Food Foundation revealed today that one in seven adults live in homes where people have skipped meals, eaten smaller portions or gone hungry all day — a rise of 57 per cent in three months.

The charity said that foodbank users are increasingly requesting items that do not need cooking because they are worried about how they will afford rising energy bills.

The “chilling” figures come at a time when the cost-of-living crisis is increasingly hitting families who are facing rising utility and food prices, which are outstripping wages and the amount by which benefits have risen.

The charity analysed responses from 10,674 adults who were surveyed online by YouGov between April 22 and 29.

Some 13.8 per cent of respondents or a member of their household had either eaten smaller meals than usual or skipped meals, not eaten despite being hungry or not eaten for a full day because they could not afford or get access to food in the past month.

The findings suggest that about 7.3 million adults and 2.6 million children are affected by food insecurity — up from 4.7 million adults surveyed in January.

Dominic Watters, a single father from Canterbury, said: “I’ve had days where only my daughter ate and I’ve had her leftovers, if anything at all.”

Food Foundation executive director Anna Taylor said: “The situation is rapidly turning from an economic crisis to a health crisis.

“Foodbanks cannot possibly be expected to solve this.”

Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “These are devastating findings that reveal the acute levels of hunger impacting families and children nationwide caused by the Conservatives’ cost-of-living crisis.”

Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union general secretary Sarah Woolley, said: “These findings showing how millions more people are unable to feed themselves and their families and are skipping meals, cutting back or going whole days without food is evidence of a national emergency.”

Last week Environment Secretary George Eustice sparked anger when he suggested that families buy supermarket own brand food to help make ends meet.

A government spokesman said: “We recognise the pressures on the cost of living and we are doing what we can to help, including spending £22 billion across the next financial year to support people with energy bills and cut fuel duty.”