Check on adulteration: R’sthan govt to launch IMFL in tetra pack

BHARATPUR: The Rajasthan government has decided to launch Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) in Tetra Pak, a packaging material used for non-alcoholic beverages around the world, to reduce adulteration and breakage.

The new excise and temperance policy for 2017-18 and 2018-19 says the liquor will be sold in Tetra Pak packages of 180ml and will have lower alcohol content than the available IMFL brands.

Tetra Pak is a packing technology named after its owner, a multinational food packaging and processing company of Swedish origin with head offices in Lund, Sweden, and Lausanne, Switzerland.

The new excise policy, announced on February 23, allows the Rajasthan State Ganganagar Sugar Mills (RSGSM) to manufacture cheaper IMFL with 65% alcohol content – the available brands have 75% – and package it in Tetra Pak.

RSGSM, a state government undertaking, currently manufacturers country liquor, and royal heritage liqueur based on the recipes of erstwhile princely states -- earthen pots and copper and brass utensils are used for fermentation and distillation as it was done in the royal days.

The RSGSM will use Tetra Pak for packaging only IMFL; the country liquor and royal heritage liqueur will continue to be packaged in glass bottles.

Some states, such as Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, are already selling liquor in Tetra Pak packaging — a process by which micro-organisms are prevented from entering the packs during and after packaging.

The proposal for IMFL in Tetra Pak in Rajasthan was mooted by Bharatpur excise inspector Umesh Chand Gupta who studied the experiment in Uttar Pradesh. The proposal, he said, was discussed at a meeting of excise officials on December 29, 2016 before the new policy was formulated.

“The excise commissioner will soon issue detailed guidelines for this but I’m happy that the innovation has been approved in the policy,” he told HT.

An excise department official said the new packaging will prevent adulteration. “Tetra Paks cannot be illegally manufactured easily because raw material and technology are not available to anyone,” he added.

An expert said, “Adulteration is almost impossible in Tetra Paks and the new packaging makes distribution easier with no fear of breakage as compared with glass.”