Pasta-loving Italians are eating less spaghetti, bread and beef and drink fewer glasses of wine after food prices shot up this year, two surveys showed on Friday.

Three out of four Italians have changed their eating and drinking habits, according to a survey conducted by Italian farmers association Coldiretti and polling centre SWG.

"There is a considerable change in food habits in Italy and other European countries due to price rises," said SWG Chairman Roberto Weber.

The survey was based on polling 1,000 Italian residents and 1,047 residents of France, Germany, Britain and Spain. In Italy, pasta and bread consumption dropped 7.4 percent, beef consumption fell 4.1 percent and fresh milk consumption eased 2.6 percent, in the first eight months of this year, Coldiretti said, citing another survey by research centres ISMEA and AC Nielsen.

Wine consumption in Italy dropped 7.9 percent, but chicken meat and eggs consumption rose 7.5 percent and 6.4 percent respectively, the second survey showed.

The two surveys were presented at an International Food and Agriculture Forum organised by Coldiretti in Cernobbio, on lake Maggiore near Milan.

Economists say that recent food price rises have been fuelled by a surge in cereals prices due to tight supplies.

But 60 percent of Italians blame more expensive food on the excessive number of intermediaries between producers and consumers, SWG's Weber said.

Italians pay increasing attention to food safety and remain opposed to genetically modified (GM) products, with 60 percent of polled Italians saying GM food is not good for one's health because it isn't natural, SWG's survey showed.

Other Europeans polled by SWG are more tolerant to GM food with a little more than 52 percent seeing it as a health hazard.

"It is a confirmation of distrust of GM food. Consumers confirm their opposition to GMOs which they see as less healthy," said Coldiretti's GM analyst Stefano Masini.

However, the biotech industry says its products are safe and no different from conventional foods.