In the pubs, restaurants and wine bars of Britain prosecco has never been so popular, but producing the sparkling wine in the rolling hills of northern Italy is leading to soil erosion on a huge scale, a report claims.

With prosecco eclipsing Champagne in popularity and around 500 million bottles produced each year, new vineyards have been planted in Italy’s northern Veneto region as wine makers cash in on the boom.

But when rain falls on slopes that are denuded of natural vegetation, soil is eroded and pesticides and fertilisers leach into streams and rivers.

The study by scientists from Padua University claims that for every bottle of prosecco produced, 4.4kg (10lbs) of soil is lost. That amounts to around 400,000 tonnes of soil each year.

British drinkers play an unwitting role in the problem – the UK is the largest overseas market for prosecco, followed by the United States and Germany.

In the area of Veneto where prosecco is produced, between the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, vineyards account for nearly three-quarters of soil erosion, the researchers claimed.

The rate of soil erosion there is “11 times higher than the Italian average.”

The area covered by prosecco-producing vineyards has increased from around 4,000 hectares two decades ago to around 7,000 hectares, as pastureland and woods are planted with vines.