IIP hopes to submit report on bulk packaging of tea by April

The Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) expects to submit its report on development of bulk packaging of tea to Tea Board India by April, an official said on Wednesday.

"Tea Board gave us a project to work on the development of bulk packaging of tea. The Board has specification for packaging of tea.

"We would give recommendation to the Board to standardise bulk tea packaging in view of development of new packaging materials. We are expecting to submit the report by April," said IIP's Deputy Director and Kolkata brach head Bidhan Das.

He said the institute evaluated the shelf-life of orthodox and CTC (crush, tear, curl) tea packaged with different packaging materials.

On a pan India survey conducted by the institute on packaging of food articles, he said around 2,000 samples were collected from organised food processing companies and no irregularities were found in these samples.

"About 1,000 samples of pack from unorganised sector were collected. In this sampling, it was found that packaging materials in 3-4 per cent of the samples failed to comply with food grade," he said.

IIP, an autonomous body working under the administrative control of Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is organising a two-day national conference on "Emerging Packaging Technology-Optimising Performance and Cost" here on March 14 and 15.

--IANS

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