Food manufacturers keen

to prove their green credentials should dump plastic packaging and switch to

paper-based alternatives,

it was claimed this week.

Welton Bibby and Baron, the UK's largest producer of paper bag packaging, claimed a large proportion of paper food packaging used in the UK was produced at its factory in Somerset, while most plastic packaging was imported, having been manufactured thousands of miles away in the Far East.

This meant that switching to paper made from sustainably-farmed trees grown in Europe would dramatically reduce 'packaging miles',

it claimed.

Nick Tomkins, the company's sales and marketing director, said the high price of oil - used to make the polymers in plastic packaging - meant paper packaging was now much closer to plastic in terms of affordability.