Procter & Gamble is planning to give one of the US`s biggest food groups access to its industry-leading packaging and design skills in one of the most ambitious co-operation deals struck by the world's biggest seller of consumer goods.

ConAgra, which makes Orville Redenbacher's popcorn and Hebrew National frankfurters, will be allowed to use P&G packaging - from non-splatter valves on plastic bottles to wrappings -

to make its products more user-friendly.

It will also be able to use "nutritionally enhancing" food ingredients, such as Calsura calcium, used in PepsiCo's Tropicana orange juice, across its entire range of products.

Jeff Weedman, vice-president of external business development at P&G, said that under the deal "P&G's packaging capabilities are going to be applied to Con-Agra's needs".

It is the first time P&G has allowed another company access to its packaging technologies - used in non-food lines such as Pantene shampoo, Tide detergent and Fairy liquid - and could mean changes to hundreds of food lines across the US.

The deal has the potential to be one of the biggest to be developed under P&G's "connect and develop" open-innovation strategy.

AG Lafley set a target of having half of P&G's innovation coming from external partnerships soon after he became chief executive in 2000. P&G said it hit that goal some time in the past 12 months and was now looking for bigger innovation deals. "I certainly hope this will grow into the largest deal we've ever done," Mr Weedman said.

Al Bolles, head of innovation and research at Con-Agra, said the company would seek to apply the licensed technologies rapidly to selected products.

Mr Bolles has experience of applying P&G ingredients to food products, developing Tropicana's orange juice with calcium in the mid-1990s, and has known Mr Weedman for more than a decade. Mr Weedman said the lack of overlap between ConAgra and P&G, which focuses on household, beauty and healthcare products, created "perfect synergies".

"We have over 300 brands globally and lots of different packaging and several hundred packaging experts. To date we have used that - with very few exceptions - on P&G products," Mr Weedman said. Previous deals under P&G's "connect and develop" strategy have included a joint venture with Clorox, one of P&G's competitors, that uses P&G's proprietary technology for plastic food wrap and plastic garbage bags.

Mr Weedman said the ConAgra deal could provide a blueprint for collaboration with other companies in areas such as manufacturing, research and marketing.

"There are a lot of other embedded capabilities that I think P&G has. If this one proves out . . then I would want to reapply this."