Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola, Muller Dairy (UK) Ltd., Scottish & Newcastle, and the Co-operative Group, along with four other non-food companies said today they will use a CO2 measuring scheme run by the Carbon Trust.
The move by the companies is a sign of the increasing weight being given to the environmental impact of manufacturing products, from the raw ingredient stage, packaging and to disposal.
It would require processors and their suppliers to measure and keep track of the entire supply chain using a common method of calculating CO2 emissions.
The "carbon footprint" scheme is part of a plan to eventually introduce a common label that will allow consumers to compare similar products in relation to their CO2 emissions.
Other countries have also been looking at the development of the Carbon Trust's scheme, first proposed almost a year ago.
It could become the basis of other schemes that could be launched worldwide, and would especially affect multinationals.
Cadbury Schweppes said will use the Carbon Trust scheme to measure the CO2 emissions from producing its Cadbury Dairy Milk bars.
Coca-Cola said it will use it for an unnamed sparkling beverage and a still beverage from its product range.
Scottish & Newcastle will use the measure for its Fosters Lager and Bulmers Original Cider.
Muller Dairy will use if for one type of yoghurt from its product range and the Co-operative Group will use it for its 200g and 400g packages of punnet strawberries.
The companies will use a draft standard developed by the Carbon Trust to calculate the embodied CO2 emissions of the selected products.
"It is the intention of the partners to reduce product carbon emissions and to work together with the Carbon Trust to explore the best way to communicate this information to consumers," a joint announcement stated.
Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, said the pilot programme with the companies marks a key stage in the development of a product carbon footprinting standard.
UK businesses are increasingly looking to tackle the indirect emissions from products and services due to the rise in demand from consumers for more information on the climate change impact of products, he said.
Consumer, regulatory and economic pressures are also driving more and more companies to become more energy and carbon efficient.
"The unprecedented level of interest we have had in this initiative makes me confident that by working with manufacturers and producers to reduce indirect carbon emissions, we can move the UK another step closer to a low carbon economy," Delay stated.
Alex Cole, Cadbury's corporate responsibility director said joining the programme has allowed the company to understand more about the environmental impact of its global operations.
The company has previously published a corporate policy, called "Purple Goes Green", marking a public commitment to environmental responsibility.
"Whether it's British cows producing fresh milk or Ghanaian farmers growing cocoa, there's a whole bunch of activities that go into making a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk," he stated.
"This process is helping us understand where our greatest energy impacts are - so we can bring them down as part of our "Purple Goes Green" project to do our bit for climate change."
Coca-Cola's Paul Smith, manager of the company's environment, heath and safety group, said the company already has a good understanding of the carbon footprint of its manufacturing operations in the UK.
However he said the company still needed to do more to understand the overall footprint of its individual products.
"This will be a complex task requiring a detailed analysis of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions across the product lifecycle," he said.
Mller Dairy (UK) Ltd. said measuring and reducing carbon emissions is a big challenge for processors today.
"Carbon emissions from production facilities, and the resulting contribution to climate change, is one of the biggest challenges that manufacturers face today and we understand how vital it is to reduce our impact on the environment," he stated.
Scottish & Newcastle's UK environmental manager, Richard Naylor, said the company has already done a lot to reduce the impact of its operations on global warming.
"However, we realise that we also need to better understand the part our supply chain plays in impacting the environment," he stated.
The Carbon Trust and the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are working with BSI British Standards to develop a carbon labeling standard.
The standard will be based on a method for measuring the embodied greenhouse gas emissions from products and services across their lifecycle that will be applicable to a wide range of sectors and product categories.
The development of the standard is being overseen by an independent steering group chaired by Jim Skea, the director of the UK Energy Research Centre, with members from businesses, non-governmental organizations, government and academics.
The Carbon Trust initially launched a carbon reduction label in March 2007 with Walkers, Boots, and Innocent to communicate the embodied emissions of their products.
The companies made a commitment to reduce their product's emissions over a two year period.
If the emissions are not reduced over the period the companies will be required to remove the label.
The label now appears on all flavours of Walkers crisps and on point of sale materials for the Botanics range of shampoos in Boots stores.
Innocent's drinks currently displays the label for their mango and passionfruit smoothie on their website and is working with the Carbon Trust to provide information across its entire smoothie range.
The Carbon Trust is a private company set up by government as a means of developing policies and programmes addressing climate change.
Many processors in the EU, including major dairy companies, are part of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, one that requires them to stay within fixed limits of CO2 production at their plants.
The overall goal is for the EU to reduce CO2 emissions as part of the commitment to the Kyoto agreement on climate change.
CO2 emissions are blamed for global warming and the changes in climate occuring globally.