VATIS UPDATE Article

Central Arecanut, India, and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd., India, has launched a chocolate that will have sugar made from ‘neera’ or sap of coconut palm, which will be safe for consumption even for diabetics. Neera sugar, prepared using a technology developed by Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), India, has low glycemic index and, hence, can be consumed by those having high sugar levels. “We are introducing milk chocolates and chocolate beverages using Neera sugar,” said M Suresh Bhandary, at Campco.

Palakkad Coconut Producers Company Limited (PCPCL) in Kerala makes neera using the ‘ice box’ technology. Its current production is 500 litres a day and it is one of the suppliers shortlisted for supply of neera sugar to Campco. “We make sugar and honey. The sugar is costly, selling at Rs 400 per kg and, hence, is difficult to sell in the market. But during Christmas time, we had orders from lot of cake manufacturers,” said Vinod Kumar P, at PCPCL.

CPCRI has developed the technology for extracting unfermented neera from coconut palm. Usually, neera gets fermented soon after extraction, making it unsuitable for producing sugar. CPCRI’s technology uses a container with ice cubes for keeping neera unfermented in a cold state for a longer time.