Joynagar Moa

About Moa-

• The  moa is a popped-rice ball held together with fresh date-palm jaggery, extracted from the beginning of December till the end of February. 
• Its manufacture is so synonymous with Joynagar, a settlement on the outskirts of Kolkata, that it earned the Geographical Indication tag of Joynagar Moa in 2015. 
• But considering that the application for the recognition was submitted in 2012, the tag became valid from that year until 2022. Now, an extension has come through for another 10 years.
• This popular Bengal sweetmeat is available only during the colder months of the year.
• Said to date back to 1904, the  moa is made of aromatic  khoi — popped rice — that is mixed with jaggery, sugar, cashew nuts and raisins. 
• Its only drawback is that it has a short shelf life, lasting not more than five days without refrigeration. 
• The high perishability has prevented it from being shipped abroad all these decades, and its export began, on a very small scale, only in 2020.
• Now the sweet’s makers and IIT researchers are developing packaging material to increase shelf life from five days to two and a half months.