Business

Nine major brands have joined the Courtauld Commitment, bringing the total number of signatories to 25, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) announced today.

The new signatories are Britvic, Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola, Dairy Crest, Duchy Originals, Mars, McBride, Nestle and Premier Foods, which have a joint turnover in excess of £9bn.

They join the ranks of Heinz, Northern Foods and Unilever, and the UK's 13 largest grocery retailers in committing to an absolute reduction in packaging by 2010.

Wrap's special advisor Mark Barthel said it was encouraging to see an improvement in the amount of collaboration between brands and retailers on the issue. "It certainly makes our task a lot easier," he added.

The Courtauld Commitment also seeks to tackle the issue of food waste – 6.7m tonnes, around a third of all food bought, is thrown away each year.

Moreover, Wrap said it is working on developing a new common approach for measuring packaging reduction, which was something retailers had been calling for. "This would enable us to better aggregate information when talking about Courtauld to government and the media," said Barthel.