The theme of the conference will revolve around new developments in the packaging materials, techniques and systems that open up new possibilities and opportunities for marketing products and reducing cost effectively. 

 

The topic under discussion will cover the use of packaging materials such as paper, tin plate, glass, aluminium foil and safe coatings used in packaging of food. The day two will see topic addressing concerns in food safety, evaluation of packaging materials for safety and packaging systems and machinery used.  

 

IIP is very committed to food packaging. Last year during IndiaPack, while talking exclusively to PrintWeek India, Shri Rajani Ranjan Rashmi, IAS, additional secretary, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India said, “The Government is committed to the growth of the packaging industry in India.” 

 

He underlined the point that under the Foreign Trade Policy, the government is incentivising the packaging industry particularly for food exports and perishable goods. He requested the stakeholders in the industry to take advantage of it.

 

He added, “(As part of the) ... Foreign Trade Policy there have been incentives by the Government in packaging that I hope shall facilitate value addition.” 

 

Rajani Ranjan Rashmi said the industry should take advantage of these incentives and adopt not only the standards but also disseminate it.

 

In an extempore address to the World Packaging Congress (WPC) during October 2015 in Mumbai, the union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal highlighted the government’s commitment to 42 mega food parks (MFP) which could be operational by 2019. A rough estimate suggests this will yield a potential investment of about Rs 14,000 crore and should benefit 12.5 lakh farmers plus generate 3-4 lakh new jobs, too.

 

IIP director Dr NC Saha spoke about how IIP earned its first patent on the eve of the Food Packaging Conference. He said, “There is a product in West Bengal called Jaggery, which is produced from sugarcane. In West Bengal (WB) there is a fruit available called palm. From the palm, you make the ‘gur’ and it is called nullen gur. It is available in West Bengal from November to March. Normally it is sold in solid form. A new trend is liquid gur. West Bengal government has started a new mission called Vishva Bangla, which is a retail chain. The product (gur) shelf life is only three hours.

 

Saha said, "We analysed the critical factors that stales the product. We filled the warm gur in various packaging materials. The material should be strong to prevent the affect on the environment. We had chosen three options – stand-up pouch with spout, coextruded plastic bottle (like tomato ketch-up) and multiwall collapsible plastic tube (like toothpaste) – three-layer aluminium barrier tube with induction seal that extended the shelf life from three hours to 92 days. The sale of Vishwa Bangla has gone up; many NRIs buy the product in dozens. They launched 200ml labelling it as natural date palm by IIP and Ministry of cottage and micro industry of govt of West Bengal."

 

To register, the IIP Secretariat can be contacted at 91 022 2821 9803 / 6751 / 9469 and email at iip@iip-in.com