Twenty-one of the UK's leading food and drink manufacturers today joined forces in a new initiative to cut down on water usage and improve efficiency across all areas of their businesses. If rolled out across the food and drink sector as a whole, the scheme could save some 140m litres of water a day - equivalent to 56 Olympic-size swimming pools - with a combined financial saving of around £60m per year on water bills.

But consumer and environmental groups were expected to question how effective a voluntary agreement would be, amid concerns about whether consumers might be compromised by possible cutbacks on the use of water in health and safety areas. Chocolate giant Cadbury was prosecuted and fined £1m last year after unclean pipes were found to be at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak which gave 42 people food poisoning and put three of them in hospital.

The so-called Federation House Commitment has been jointly developed by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) - the trade body representing Britain's leading food and drink companies - and resource efficiency experts Envirowise. The first 21 signatories have pledged to review their onsite water use and take action to reduce it wherever possible.

Companies working with Envirowise will review their current water use and develop site-specific action plans to significantly cut water use and costs within six months of signing up to the commitment. They will report annually to Envirowise on water and cost savings made on site. Envirowise will offer signatories a package of support measures to help them.

The signatories represent the lion's share of the industry with a combined annual turnover of some £15bn a year. They are: Apetito, Birds Eye Iglo, Britvic, Cadbury Schweppes; Coca-Cola Enterprises, GlaxoSmithKline, Kellogg Marketing & Sales Co, Kraft Foods UK, Mars Snackfood, Müller Dairy (UK), Nestlé UK, PepsiCo UK, Premier Foods, Tate & Lyle, UIN Foods, Unilever UK, Uniq, United Biscuits, Warburtons, Weetabix, and Young's Seafood.

The commitment will help FDF members to achieve their water-reduction goals, as set out in the federation's recently launched five-fold environmental plan, which includes parallel goals in areas such as waste and packaging. It will also be central to achieving the industry-wide target in the food industry sustainability strategy to reduce water use - outside of that embedded in products themselves - by 20% by 2020 compared to 2007.

Agriculture minister Lord Rooker welcomed the move, saying: "I am very pleased to support this joint FDF and Envirowise initiative which has resulted in the first voluntary framework under which food and drink companies can work systematically towards improving efficiency and reducing water use wherever possible.

"It is particularly pleasing to see so many influential companies, responsible for well-known household brands, signing up on day one. I would like to urge more companies in the sector to follow the leadership and commitment being shown by FDF and its members to the environment."

Fiona Dawson, the managing director of Mars Snackfood UK, said: "At Mars we view water as a precious resource and have been working hard to reduce our usage. We used 40% less in 2007 than we did in 2006. We are delighted to be signing the commitment and look forward to helping to move the whole industry forward."

She added there would be "absolutely no compromise" on health and safety. "This is a non-negotiable area" she promised. "The important thing is that if you don't measure water usage, then you can't monitor it, so we are urging all food and drink companies to sign up to this pledge to help the environment."

(Por Rebecca Smithers, Guardian Unlimited, 28/01/2008)