PROPOSALS FOR TEA PRODUCT INNOVATIONS AND

DIVERSIFICATION SUBSIDY SCHEME IN THE SRI LANKA TEA

EXPORT INDUSTRY (2023-2027)
Innovation of Halpé tea Eco-fill tea leaf bagging

AUGUST 8, 2022
U H E EXPORTS PVT (LTD)
Badulla Road, Hela Halpe,Bandarawela.
 Innovation of Halpé tea Eco-fill tea leaf bagging

Introduction
A tea bag is a single-use, porous, sealed sachet used to brew tea or infusions. It usually contains
tea leaves, flowers, leaves of herbs and spices. Packing tea in tea bags is not a modern invention.
Since the first tea bag was invented, many new developments have been added to it. The most
common materials used to make tea bags are bleached paper, plastic, or nylon, and glue and other
chemicals are used to seal the bags. Plastic and nylon tea bags produce 11 billion microplastics in
a single serving when they come into contact with hot water. When these tea bags are thrown away
or incorrectly composted, the microplastics, bleach, glue, and toxins they contain enter directly
into your body and the environment.

Paper, plastic, and nylon tea bags can all lead to behavioral, developmental, and reproductive
health problems when consumed as tea. The average person uses 5 g of plastic per week—the size
of a credit card. Even a seemingly innocuous cup of tea can contribute to this intake of plastic and
result in long-term health problems. Alternatives to plastic food packaging have been created, such
as myofibrillar proteins from animal muscle, whey protein, casein, collagen, soy protein, and
polymers produced from biomass from plants, marine animals, and domestic animals.

This product is crafted using natural ingredients of a tea plant that provide all the goodness of a
tea plant in one cup. The only non-tea-related material is the decomposable thread that holds
everything together and allows you to dip the tea bag into your cup. This product is made with
withered tea leaves, which are found to be necessary for the development of aroma constituents in
pouched tea. Research suggests that the withering process should be carried out below 38°C for
quality black tea, but for oolong tea, withering at 40°C results in more volatile compounds
compared to normally withered leaves at ambient temperature. During this period, the shoots
partially lose moisture, with moisture levels dropping from approximately 70–80% to 60–70%
(wet basis), and the turgid shoots become flaccid. The rigid leaf becomes flexible, and the shoots
can now be twisted or rolled without breaking or becoming damaged into pieces. Therefore, it has
a good physical structure to act as a material for tea bagging.

During black tea manufacturing, only leaves at or below the best leaf standard are selected. The
rest of the mature tea leaves will be discarded from the withering process as a waste. Or else, tea

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flush containing mature tea leaves will lead to producing flaky tea with quality issues. Therefore,
this innovative tea bag production using mature tea leaves will be advantageous for producing
biodegradable tea bags, which are eco-friendly and nutritious, as well as producing good quality
tea indirectly.

Plant based
Tea bag

Biodegrade Pop into a

(back to waste bin
nature)

Apart from that, as this packaging material is made with mature tea leaves which undergo a
withering process, it consists of chemical compounds which add additional nutrients to your cup
of tea such as protein and amino acids, carbohydrate, lipid, catechin, caffeine, volatile flavor
compounds, carotenoids etc.

Problem Statement
In the black tea manufacturing process, tender tea leaves are the only raw material to produce good
quality made-tea. But some amounts of mature tea leaves are included in the tea flush and they
need to be separated in order to maintain the quality of the tea. Otherwise, tea made from leaves
below the quality standard will lead to the production of flaky tea. The problem associated with
this is that if these mature tea leaves are separated from the best quality leaves, those leaves can
be used to make tea bagging material as an innovation.

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Objectives
To innovate eco-friendly, nutritious, and non-toxic tea packaging materials while minimizing the
wastage of mature tea leaves during the black tea manufacturing process.

Methodology
 Mature tea leaves were separated from the tea flush
 Mature tea leaves were under gone medium withering process (45%)
 Withered tea leaves were folded like a pyramid including leafy tea (OPA, OP, OP1) inside
 Tea bags were stitched using a nylon thread

Biodegradable Packaging material can be checked for its packaging capacity by using following tests.

I. Physical Exam

One set of the tea samples were packed in the bag innovated and the other set in plastic zip locks. Both set
of the samples i.e. SET A in as well as the SET B was stored simultaneously in the refrigerator. Both SET
A and SET B were kept in the store at the same time. Samples were removed after 8 days and checked for
physical changes, such as a change in appearance or any indications of rotting.

II. Nutritional evaluation

To check for any significant variations in the values, both sets of samples were also sent for nutritional
examination of the following parameters. caffeine, Fats, moisture content, carotenoids, vitamins, and
minerals were the metrics that should, if any, exhibit variations.

Zn, Fe, Mn, and Cu) were examined under Minerals. The Association of Official Analytical Chemists'
procedures were applied to the solvent extraction method for the examination of fat (2003.05) utilizing
chloroform: methanol (2:1) (v/v). Following wet digestion, an elemental analysis was performed in

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accordance with AOAC (968.08) protocol. In a nutshell, the powdered materials were digested with
Suprapure HNO3 (65%) and H2O2 in a 2:1 (v/v) ratio, filtered, and used for examination by flame atomic
absorption spectroscopy (Varian- SpectrAA 220, USA). According to the methods provided by Rodriguez-
Amaya and Kimura, carotenoids were identified. After the sample is saponified using petroleum ether and
12 percent (w/v) alcoholic potassium hydroxide, they are extracted. By measuring the optical density (OD)
at 450 nm in a spectrophotometer, the total amount of carotenoid was determined.

III. Biodegradability

The following test was performed to check if the packaging material was biodegradable or not. A steel tray
and a plastic container were taken and filled with moist soil covering 3/4th of the tray.3 biodegradable
packaging material samples were taken, which were previously produced in the project. First sample was
not pre-treated it was used as it is. The second sample was pretreated with water which makes it moist. The
third sample was pre-coated with beeswax. Plastic was taken as the standard and placed in a plastic
container. All the 4 materials were placed on their respective containers of soil and covered with the soil
till the rim. The tray and container were left to incubate for 10 days and results were viewed.

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Annex
UHE Exports (pvt) LTD
Mr. A.P.P. Eranda Abeyrathne,
Managing Director, Telephone:0773919191
Fax: 0117635370

Company Name & Contact Details E-mail: eranda@halpetea.com

Product (Tea related) Halpé tea Eco-fill tea leaf bagging

 Boil clean water to 100℃

 Then place tea bag on it
 Pour 1 cup of freshly boiling water into tea cup over
the tea bag
 Steep it for 3-5 minutes
Details of the Product application  The remove the tea bag

Targeted export market/s Europe and USA

Size of market/s approximately in units 1000 units per month

Competitive landscape (briefly specify)

Expected distribution channel/s

Proposed marketing support

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027

Expected annual revenue in units (Volume)

2023 2024 2025 2026 2027

Expected annual revenue in Value (US$)

Type & specification of the machinery should be specified.

Types of invest Estimated Budget

Withering Machine for the tea
leaves
Nutritional evaluation
Expected initial capital investment (US$) Biodegradability test
Threading per tea bag
Paper tag per tea bag
Payback period of the capital investment (US$) 02 years

Name-A.P.P.E Aberathna
Designation -Managing Director
Mobile Number 0773919191
Contact Details for information and clarification
of the Project Email ID-eranda@halpetea.com

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References
 Aduri, P., Rao, K.A., Fatima, A., Kaul, P. and Shalini, A., 2019. Study of biodegradable
packaging material produced from SCOBY. Res. J. Life Sci., Bioinf., Pharm. Chem. Sci, 5,
pp.389-404.