Evolution of Appalam Packaging Machine

Papad is a distinguished food item generally served with a main course meal or as a snack, and is thin, crisp, flat and round shaped. It’s known by various names as according to the demographic language – appalam in Tamil Nadu, pappadum in Kerala, happala in Karnataka and papad or pappad in rest of India. Papad is usually made from dough of peeled black gram flour but flour of other lentils, tapioca, potato, rice and chickpeas can also be used. Salt and oil along with other seasonings such as pepper, garlic and chilli is added during dough making. Small lump of dough is rolled to make flat bread which is then dried in sun or heated in an oven. The dried bread can be fried in oil, roasted in open flame and cooked in microwave oven depending on the flavour and texture one wants. Although being native to Indian subcontinent, papad is also served in American and European countries as an appetizer or snack with a dip or chutney.

Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad is the pioneer of the papad industry in India which started its operation in 1959. It’s the brainchild of seven women who started the company to help women to earn their daily bread. The company grew at steady pace and is now a woman workers cooperative company employing 43,000 people and the brand Lijjat has become a household name. The popularity of papad has seen a gradual rise among the common masses all over India. The increase in popularity can be credited to two factors – one being the suitability of papad with any dish and the other being the word of mouth and marketing through vernacular media. The demand for papad thus has seen a huge upswing all over India and that’s why a number of industries have got into this industry.

Increase in number of companies in appalam industry has led to fierce competition and has forced companies to look beyond traditional methods of manufacturing. What started as a business to promote women empowerment has now become a beneficiary of automated machineries and therefore higher output in lesser time. To keep up with this increased production, packaging too evolved. In the beginning, papad was sold loose or with minimal packaging as the production and distribution was local only. By 1980 there was a significant consumption of appalam and use of polypropylene (a type of plastic polymer) packaging came into effect as papad had to be transported to other places as well. The packaging unit still then was mostly manual. Recent times have forced the manufacturers to resort to automated packaging units due to fierce demand and competition.

Automated appalam packaging machines come with numerous advantages like higher efficiency, lower degree of human error and labour costs, better quality check and increased capacity to meet the demands. Factors such as these have promoted companies to switch to advanced packaging machines and live up to the competition in papad industry in the present scenario.

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