Case study: a cloud kitchen marks veg and non-veg bags with tape

A veg biryani and a chicken biryani leave the same kitchen in the same kraft bag. From the outside, they look identical. At 9 pm, with six riders waiting at the counter, that is a real problem.

This is a worked example. The business is illustrative, put together from situations small sellers commonly face. The product details and the maths are real.

The kitchen, and the mix-up it is afraid of

Picture a cloud kitchen in Gurugram that runs two brands from one kitchen and one packing counter. It sends out about 2,400 deliveries a month through the food delivery apps, i.e. about 80 a day, with heavier weekends.

Brand one is a pure-veg meals and thali brand. Say about 1,000 orders a month.
Brand two sells biryani and kebabs, both veg and non-veg. Say about 1,400 orders a month. Of these, assume 900 are non-veg only, 300 are veg only and 200 are mixed (a veg dish and a non-veg dish in one bag).

Today, every bag is closed with plain transparent tape. At rush hour, the packer writes "V" or "NV" on the bag with a marker. On an oily kraft bag, half of those letters smudge, and on a busy night some bags get no letter at all.

Nothing has gone badly wrong yet. The owner's fear is simple.

One non-veg bag reaching a pure-veg household costs a refund, a one-star review and very likely that customer, all for a mistake that took two seconds to make.

We hear this worry from food sellers often, and I take it seriously. A vegetarian family rarely gives a second chance.

Why marking tape, and what else they could use

A strip of tape already closes every bag. If that same strip also carries the colour, the packer does nothing extra.

That is the whole argument.

We make tape at JPPL in Jaipur, and we sell three marking tapes in BOPP film, all 1 inch wide and 35 m long per roll: Veg tape in green, Non-veg tape in red, and a mixed pack that is exactly half green and half red. The rolls also carry the words VEG and NON-VEG, so the packer is not judging colour alone.

Two rolls of PackSmith non-veg marking tape with red markings and the words NON-VEG

Here is what else this kitchen could look at. I would weigh each one honestly before spending money on ours.

Plain tape plus a marker. The cheapest option. It is also the one failing them today.
Printed round stickers from a local printer. They can carry the brand logo and can be cheaper per piece, but a sticker does not seal the bag. You still need tape, so that is two actions per bag.
Different coloured bags for veg and non-veg. This works, but it doubles the bag stock, and it does nothing for a mixed order.
A plain sealing tape such as our red food delivery tape printed for Zomato partners. That tape is our own product. It is not made for, affiliated with or endorsed by Zomato or Swiggy. It seals the bag, but it does not say veg or non-veg, so it does not fix this kitchen's problem.

A word on the law, because sellers often ask us. FSSAI's Labelling and Display Regulations, 2020 put the veg and non-veg logo on the menu, and delivery apps must show it on their listing. No regulation names delivery bags or tape. Also, our tape uses its own green and red marking. The FSSAI non-veg symbol is brown, so the tape is a kitchen and customer marking, not the legal symbol. You can read the FSSAI compendium yourself, and our veg and non-veg tape guide explains it in plain words.

The colour rule, written on the wall

A tape is only as good as the rule behind it. If I were running this counter, I would print this table and stick it above the packing table.

What is in the bag	Bag seal strip	Strip on each container lid
Only veg food	Green	Green
Only non-veg food	Red	Red
Veg and non-veg together	Red	The colour of the food in that container

The mixed row is the one that matters.

The bag goes red because a pure-veg household must know before opening it. Inside, each container still shows its own colour, so the customer can pick out the veg dal without guessing.

The packing setup, step by step

Keep two tape stations on the counter, green on the left and red on the right. Never one drawer with both.
Pack the containers. Wipe each lid dry first. Hot food sends steam into the lid, and no tape holds on a wet surface.
Put one 10 cm strip across the lid joint of every container, in that container's colour.
Place the containers in the bag. Fold the top of the bag twice.
Run one 25 cm strip across the fold and down both sides, in the bag's colour from the table.
Press the full strip with your thumb. Then hand it over.

Tape across a fold shows if someone has opened the bag on the way. It is not a security seal, and we do not sell it as one.

I would also keep the routine identical for both brands. Consistency at the counter matters more than the tape itself.

Two rolls of PackSmith veg marking tape with green markings and the word VEG

The numbers: tape per month and when to reorder

We worked this out the way we would for any kitchen that writes to us. The maths uses two assumptions you should replace with your own: 2 containers per order on average, and 10% extra for torn ends and re-tapes.

So a veg-only or non-veg-only order uses 25 cm on the bag plus 2 x 10 cm on the lids, which is 45 cm of one colour. A mixed order uses 35 cm of red (bag plus one lid) and 10 cm of green (one lid).

Order type	Orders a month	Green tape	Red tape
Veg only (both brands)	1,300	585 m	0
Non-veg only	900	0	405 m
Mixed	200	20 m	70 m
Total, plus 10%	2,400	about 666 m	about 523 m
Rolls of 35 m		about 19	about 15

That is about 34 rolls a month for the whole kitchen.

We would rather you buy what you use than fill a cupboard.

A buying plan that fits this split:

Order a 36-roll pack of veg tape and a 24-roll pack of non-veg tape together.
The green lasts about 8 weeks (36 ÷ 19 a month). The red lasts about 7 weeks (24 ÷ 15 a month).
Reorder both when red stock falls to about 8 rolls. That is roughly two weeks of red, which covers our 1 to 2 working days of dispatch plus transit with room to spare.
Buying both packs in one cart also helps you reach the automatic cart offers (5% above Rs 1,000, 7% above Rs 2,000, 10% above Rs 3,000). See the listings for today's price, and check the per-roll price on each pack size before you take the biggest one.

I would not take the 72-roll packs here. A hot kitchen is a poor store for adhesive, and two months of stock is plenty.

Why not the mixed pack? It is always half and half. Here the split is about 56% green to 44% red, so a 72-roll mixed pack would leave red rolls piling up month after month. For a kitchen whose split really is close to 50:50, the mixed pack is the simpler single order.

If your containers already have tamper-evident snap lids, you can skip the lid strips on single-type orders. Then each order needs only the 25 cm bag strip, plus one 10 cm strip on the veg container in a mixed order. The total falls to about 11 green and 9 red rolls a month.

What to watch

We make tape, so I will start with the things that weaken it.

Heat. Keep spare rolls in a closed box away from the tandoor and the stove. Keep only the working roll at the counter.
Oily fingers. A greasy thumb on the adhesive weakens the hold. Keep a dry cloth at each station.
Foil containers. Test one strip on a clean, dry foil lid, leave it for an hour, and check the edges before you buy in bulk.
Jain orders and egg dishes. Green means vegetarian. It does not mean Jain (no onion or garlic), so Jain orders need their own note on the bag. And under FSSAI, egg counts as non-veg, so an egg curry gets red.
New staff. The rule fails the day a new packer reaches for the nearest roll. Teach the table on day one.

Our honest limit: the marking tapes come in one size only, 1 inch x 35 m. For a big catering carton, you may want a wider strip, and we do not make a wide marking tape today.

How would this kitchen know it is working? Count two things in app feedback for 60 days before and 60 days after: wrong veg or non-veg complaints, and "bag looked opened" complaints. Count rolls used each week too. If you are using far more than the plan, someone is wrapping three strips where one will do.

What it would take in your kitchen

Count last month's orders by type: veg only, non-veg only and mixed.
Count your average containers per order.
Measure one bag strip and one lid strip with a ruler.
Multiply, add 10%, divide by 35 m. That is your rolls per month for each colour.
Print your own colour rule and put it above the counter.

For the rest of the counter, from tape dispensers to bags, our small seller's packing station guide lists what to buy first. If you run more than one kitchen and want a monthly supply worked out, write to us with your order split. I am happy to do the roll maths with you.