The West Bengal government is planning to get Geographical Identification (GI) tag for four traditional sweetmeat delicacies of the State to help protect them from imitations.
The four sweetmeats are ‘Moa’ of Jainagar, ‘Sarpuria’ of Krishnagar, and ‘Sitabhog’ and ‘Mihidana’ of Burdwan, said Jayanta Kumar Aikat, Director of Food Processing Industries.
A GI tag is given to products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
While ‘Jainagar-er moa’ is made of puffed rice and date palm jaggery at Jainagar in South 24 Parganas district, Krishnagar of Nadia district is famous for ‘Sarpuria’ which is made of milk cream. ‘Sitabhog’ and ‘Mihidana’ are rice-based sweets from Burdwan.
“The GI tag is necessary for these items to protect them from cheap imitations. It will also help preserve quality,” Mr. Aikat said at the inaugural programme of ‘Mishti Mela’ (sweet fair) here in Malda district on Saturday.
The Centre also has plans to export sweets from the State and the GI tags would be helpful, he said. He added that good packaging was important. Nine districts of the state participated in the two-day fair in which ‘Langcha’ of Shaktigarh, ‘Chamcham’ of Belakoba, ‘Jalbhara’ of Hooghly, ‘Chhanabara’ of Murshidabad and ‘Ras-kadamba’ of Malda and other delicacies are were on sale.
