IIP Delhi inaugurates new academic block and food packaging laboratory

EM Sudarsana Natchiappan, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Government of India and chief guest for the ceremony, said, “Government of India has made a target to increase the growth of the processed food sector from 7% to 20% by 2020. Since packaging and food processing industries are complementary to each other, it had become necessary to set up a laboratory which would support the testing of the same. It is quite interesting to note that there is no exclusive laboratory for the testing of packaged foods.”

“India is an agriculture-based economy; international agri-based trade suffers because of lack of packaging expertise. India is ranked second with respect to the production of food grains, third in milk production, fourth in the production of fruits and vegetables and fifth in the marine foods including inland fishes. Thus, packaging is very important for the country,” Natchiappan further added.

Despite having such a large raw material base in the country, the international trade of India is only 1.3%, which is very low as compared to the neighbouring countries. Ministry of Food Processing Industries has also implemented its National Food Processing Mission. As on date, only 2% of fruits and vegetables and 15% of fresh milk are processed. As a result, the average growth of processed food sector is only 7%.

The Indian Institute of Packaging, being an autonomous body in the field of packaging technology and working under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GoI, has therefore taken an initiative to expand the infrastructural facilities of its Delhi centre which is located at Patparganj by way of setting up an exclusive food package testing laboratory under the current 12th Five Year Plan.

NC Saha, director IIP, said, “Demand of qualified packaging professionals is increasing day-by-day because of the growth of packaging industry. The Institute also offers a two-year post graduate diploma course in packaging, which was started in Delhi in the year 2000 with 15 students. However, IIP plans to increase the total seats to 100. This has also created requirement of infrastructural facilities and thus the Institute has also constructed an exclusive academic block to accommodate more number of PG students.”

Saha also added that IIP will now modernise the Vaishnodevi prasad packaging process. Pilot experiments had been done in 2004; but the setting up of an exclusive food package testing laboratory under the current 12th Five Year Plan will now revive the project.

Established in 1996, Indian Institute of Packaging is an apex body of the packaging industries in India and working with the active support of packaging and allied industries and ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.

Headquartered in Mumbai, the Institute opened its first branch offices in Chennai, Kolkata, the northern regional centre of the institute was set up in Delhi and Hyderabad. In 2013, Government of Karnataka allotted a land of four-acres, to set up a branch at Bengaluru. An institute has also been proposed for Guwahati, Assam.

The institute is closely linked with International organisations such as World Packaging Organization (WPO) and Asian Packaging Federation (APF). The services are recognized by the UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), ITC (International Trade Centre), The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC) and the European Economic Community (EEC). IIP laboratories at Mumbai are NABL Accredited and recognized by Bureau of Indian Standards.