In a move aimed at improving tea quality and enhancing consumer confidence, the Tea Board of India has officially launched the ‘Tea Mark’ licensing portal along with a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to regulate the certification process for Indian tea.
The initiative comes amid increasing concerns over the quality of tea, particularly in the domestic market. According to the Tea Board, the voluntary certification system is designed to ensure quality assurance, traceability, and authenticity of tea sold through its dedicated e-commerce platform, teamarketplace.in.
Under the new framework, Tea Mark will serve as a national quality certification for Indian tea, certifying products that meet prescribed standards relating to quality, traceability and sustainable production practices. The SOP also lays down detailed guidelines for certification, laboratory testing, digital authentication, market surveillance and enforcement.
In the first phase, the certification programme will be available only to mini tea factories and bought leaf factories. The Tea Board plans to gradually extend the facility to tea estates, corporate tea factories, independent tea packers and exporters in subsequent phases.
Manufacturers seeking Tea Mark certification will have to apply through the licensing portal, following which authorised Tea Board officials will inspect production units and collect tea samples from packaged batches for laboratory testing.
Only after the samples meet the quality standards prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will the Tea Board issue batch-specific approval, allowing manufacturers to market their products with the Tea Mark logo on the Board’s e-commerce platform.
The digital certification system will also enable consumers to verify the complete supply chain of the product, including its manufacturing date, processing history, laboratory clearance details and the originating tea estate or factory.
The Tea Board clarified that the Tea Mark scheme is entirely voluntary and does not affect the manufacture, sale, export or distribution of tea under existing laws.
