Dow joins hands with Vishakha, Dharmesh Foods to boost wheat packaging in India

Dharmesh Thakkar, owner of Dharmesh Foods said, "We're committed to securing a healthy and sustainable future for India. Our partnership with Dow P&SP and Vishakha allows us to use state-of-the-art recyclable barrier films, which ensure better taste and increased shelf life. This is a significant breakthrough for the wheat industry, which can offer our customers better quality of daily life, as well as providing environmental benefits."
The company claims that vacuum-packed flexible packaging increases the shelf life of wheat and avoids contamination. It sees Vishakha's barrier films as the best fit for this packaging need, as it can extend shelf life, reduce food wastage, and is also recyclable.

Jigish Doshi, CMD of Vishakha Polyfab, said, "We at Vishakha always strive to contribute to the future of the country, by developing sustainable solutions for agriculture, renewable energy, storage, and in this case, packaging materials that allow for longer shelf life. This recyclable barrier film solution will not only add to the shelf life of the product and reduce food waste, but it also helps communities in allowing for recycling of the packaging itself."

Vipul Babu, sales director for Dow P&SP India SC, said, "The joint effort between Dow P&SP, Vishakha team and Dharmesh Foods saw the three companies come together to co-develop a nylon-based barrier film enabled by Dow's Retain Compatibiliser to make recyclable packaging for wheat. This partnership brings valuable stakeholders together to foster positive impacts with sustainable packaging solutions."

Dow’s Retain Polymer Modifiers aims at enabling the efficient compatibilisation of two otherwise immiscible materials while maintaining critical value-added physical properties. It is specifically designed to compatibilise polyamide (nylon) and ethylene-vinyl alcohol (EVOH) into a continuous polyethylene matrix.

The company explains, “This innovative technology is based on a reactive, ultra-low viscosity compatibiliser. Reactive groups coat the polar components, encapsulating them into micro-domains to enable excellent dispersion. When blended at specified ratios with pelletised barrier film recycle streams, the Retain polymers allow recyclers to re-process used barrier films into conventional polyethylene-based recycle streams.”