Ben Bradshaw, Minister for Local Environment, said that shoppers were "bombarded" with unnecessary food wrappings. He said that people should report examples of excessive packaging to their local Trading Standards for investigation.

The volume of packaging waste produced in the UK grew by 12 per cent between 1999 and 2005, contributing to climate change.

As an example of the type of excessive packaging that should be stamped out, Mr Bradshaw spoke of seeing apples wrapped in polythene on a plastic tray.

At a meeting today, 13 retailers including Asda, Marks and Spencer and Tesco met to review the progress made since their pledge last year to cut packaging and waste.

According to the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a not-for-profit organisation funded by the Government, those 13 retailers have cut packaging waste by 35,000 tonnes since then, but still have a long way to go before they reach the recommended target of 160,000 tonnes by 2008 and to 340,000 tonnes by 2010.

Mr Bradshaw told a press conference: "I am impressed by the commitment that has been shown over the past year by retailers, but the action has to go further."

He announced that the Government would consider introducing legislation if retailers and producers did not voluntarily cut food packaging and waste.

Mr Bradshaw said: "Unnecessary and excessive packaging and waste contribute to dangerous climate change. It also adds to the cost to local authorities and the public managing waste. Until supermarkets demonstrate clearly that they are willing to lead by example we cannot expect consumers to get fully engaged with reducing their own waste."

The minister urged consumers to leave "excessive and unnecessary" product packaging at the supermarkets for the stores to deal with and said that consumers should report cases of excessive packaging to Trading Standards officers for investigation.

Food giants Heinz, Northern Foods and Unilever today added their signatures to the strategy, known as the Courtauld Commitment. They joined Asda, Boots, Budgens, the Co-operative Group, Londis, Iceland, Kwik Save, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose, who signed up to the strategy last year.

Since last year examples of how food packaging has been reduced includes 30 per cent lighter wrappings for ready meals from Marks and Spencer, reduced packaging around Iceland's own brand pizzas and removing cartons from around the Co-op's tomato puree.

Waste and recycling facts

Figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, show that households in England produce 25 million tonnes of waste a year. More than half of this consists of garden waste, waste paper and cardboard and kitchen waste.

On average every person in the UK now produces about seven times their own weight in waste a year.

Household waste is made up of garden waste 20%, paper and board 18%, kitchen waste 17%, general household sweepings 9%, glass 7%, scrap metal/white goods 5%, wood 5%, dense plastic 4%, plastic film 4%, textiles 3%, metal packaging 3%, soil 3%, nappies 2%.

About 20 per cent of the food bought from supermarkets in England goes straight into the bin. This is equivalent to every household throwing away £424 worth of food each year.

The amount of waste recycled in England has increased during the past four years. In 1997 households recycled 7 per cent of waste on average. This has risen to 23 per cent in 2004/2005.