PUNE: Tetra Pak India, the subsidiary of the Sweden-based Tetra Pak, has set its focus on the dairy industry to promote Tetra Pak packages, the multi-layer material of polyethylene, aluminium and paper.

According to Tetra Pak India officials, after establishing itself in the fruits and beverages segment, the next large market for its packaging material is branded milk.

Unique package

Tetra Pak is pushing its unique package — one of a kind in India — on grounds of hygiene, long shelf-life and utility value.

To add to its virtue, Tetra Pak packages are environment-friendly as they can be recycled, they say. The company is supporting a programme to recycle the paper, aluminium and plastics.

India produces about a 100 billion litres of milk a year and about 13 billion litres is sold in packed form, mostly in pouches. Tetra Pak package accounts for about a tenth of the portion sold in packaged form. The company sees this as a lot of space for growth.

Ashutosh Manohar, Processing Director, Tetra Pak India Pvt. Ltd., told a group of journalists on a tour organised by the company to publicise the benefits of Tetra Pak technology that if the quantity of milk produced posed an opportunity, the style and consumption patterns posed a challenge.

According to Jeff Gratton, Technical Director, Tetra Pak India, milk in Tetra Pak packages is clean milk — aseptically packed and sterile — ready to drink direct from the carton, as is the practice in many developed countries.

Milk in pouches has to be boiled before it can be consumed. But in India milk is consumed hot, in tea or coffee and boiling it is no issue it is incidental to the brewing process — so no major complaints there. So Tetra Pak is pushing its strengths, clean milk and a long shelf life. Milk in Tetra Pak packages can last several months unopened at room temperature.

Are they reason enough for people to shift from chilled milk in pouches delivered every morning to the doorstep to milk in cartons picked from supermarket shelves? Yes, according to Mr. Gratton.

Life styles and food habits were changing. People were willing to pay more for quality. Organised retailing was growing. Transporting a product in a Tetra Pak package meant that 99 per cent of the truckload was filled with the product — juice or milk. But in a bottle, only 60 per cent of the load was filled with product, the rest was the packaging material and empty space, he said.

According to Satyen K. Khashu, Manager-Communication and Environment, Tetra Pak, the packages are being recycled. The company has initiated a programme in Mumbai and it plans to extend the recycling to other cities.

The paper in the packaging material is made of high-grade fibre that paper mills need. The polyethylene and aluminium can be recycled into boards and sheets.

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