Premier Foods has switched out black plastic packaging across its Mr Kipling cakes and pies range for clear plastic trays.

Viennese Whirls, Apple Pies and Cherry Bakewells are among the Mr Kipling products that now have clear plastic trays – a swap which the manufacturer said had removed 400 tonnes of black plastic from the market every year.

Black plastic is not currently classified as widely recycled in the UK in accordance with the on-pack recycling label, as most materials recycling facilities (MRFs) do not have the optical sorting equipment needed to separate it from other materials, meaning it ends up in landfill or incineration.

The move is part of Premier Foods’ commitment to the UK Plastics Pact, of which it is a founding member, which is spearheaded by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

The Pact sees major food and drink players from across the supply chain commit to eliminating single-use plastic through redesign and innovation, making 100% of plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable and making sure at least 70% of it is effectively recycled.

“Our ambitious pledge on plastics also includes our commitment to eliminate problematic PVC and polystyrene from our packaging by the end of 2020, and to reduce the volume of plastics we use in our packaging by 500 tonnes by 2025. That’s on top of the 320 tonnes we’ve already removed over the last three years accumulatively,” Premier Foods said in a statement.

“And we’ll continue to include OPRL [on-pack recycling labels] on our packaging, with an aim to do so across 100% of our portfolio by the end of 2019, so consumers can better understand whether our product packaging can be recycled.”

British Baker subscribers can find out more about how the baking industry is looking to reduce its use of plastic packaging by checking out the latest feature.