After 'Nolen Gur', honey & mustard sauce tubes to hit market soon

Kolkata: The Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) will take another two months to finalise packaging of honey and mustard sauce (kasundi) that will be introduced in tubes by West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Board (WBKVIB).

"We have received samples of both honey and mustard sauce from WBKVIB and are examining the same. We have received 200 sample packets of each and believe that their shelf lives can be retained for a reasonable period in packaged tubes. We are in the final stage of examination," said Bidhan Das, deputy director, IIP Kolkata. The shelf lives of the two products will be mentioned clearly on the tubes that will be developed by IIP.

It may be mentioned that IIP was instrumental in developing the toothpaste-styled Nolen Gur tube more than two and a half years ago.

The WBKVIB in last year's December came up with a state-of-the-art common production centre (CPC) for Nolen Gur at Krishnaganj in Nadia district. The machine that was procured from Ahmedabad with an investment of around Rs 2.5 crore is presently packing jaggery in 30 tubes within a minute.

"We have witnessed that if the machine works 8 hours a day, it can produce 14,400 such tubes in a day. If it works for 4 months, which is the usual time when date palm jaggery is available, it will shell out 14.4 lakh tubes. In the remaining period, the machine will be utilised in making tubes of honey and mustard sauce. This will ensure that the machine remain operational through out the year," the official added.

Nolen Gur tubes, which has a shelf life of 180 days, are available in 100 gm and 150 gm packs at the Biswa Bangla and Khadi stores in Kolkata and also with leading sweets chains. The price is Rs 50 for 100 gm and Rs 70 for 150 gm. Apart from domestic customers, Nolen Gur tubes are very much in demand among foreigners visiting the city.

"We are hopeful that mustard sauce and honey will also have good demand," said Mrityunjoy Bandyopadhyay, CEO of WBKVIB.