India’s first decaf black tea launched by CSIR-NEIST Jorhat using local technology

Jorhat, Oct 5: Decaffeinated black tea, first of its kind in the country, produced by indigenous technology developed by scientists of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST), Jorhat, was launched by the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh, recently.

A CSIR-NEIST official informed that Dr Singh, who is also the Vice-President of CSIR, released the decaffeinated black tea at the two-day (September 24-26) ‘CSIR Super Model Store’ organised as part of 84th CSIR Day celebrations held at Dilli Haat, Delhi, where different entrepreneurs and industries based on CSIR technologies across the country took part.

It is pertinent to mention here that caffeine, which is one of the integral components of tea, sometimes may create problems to consumers like sleep disturbance, inducing anxiety, create cardiovascular problems, diuretic and therefore, decaffeinated tea, which removes the majority of caffeine from tea without disturbing the other polyphenols, has some important health benefits and is becoming popular day by day.

Hence the technology of decaffeinated tea developed by CSIR-NEIST is important to address the growing market demand for caffeine-free tea, the CSIR-NEIST official stated.

At the same programme, the decaffeinated technology was transferred to two parties in the presence of the Union Minister of State, Dr Jitendra Singh, Director General of CSIR Dr N Kalaiselvi and Director CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat, Dr Virendra M Tiwari, New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj and President of Indian National Science Academy, Professor Ashotosh Sharma.

The dignitaries appreciated the CSIR-NEIST endeavour for innovative research.

Staff Correspondent