BIS Standards for Paper Carry Bags: What Actually Applies (and Why IS 14490 Does Not)

There is no Bureau of Indian Standards specification written for paper carry bags. If a buyer asks you for “BIS conformance” on a paper bag, no single IS number answers that question, and the two most commonly quoted in the trade, IS 14490 and IS 1848, are not carry bag standards at all. What does apply is a set of standards covering the inputs: IS 1397 for the kraft paper, IS 15495 for the printing ink on food packaging, and the FSSAI packaging rules where the bag touches food.

This matters commercially. A converter who answers a vendor questionnaire by claiming “IS 14490 compliant” is claiming conformance to the Indian Standard for plain copier paper, which a technical buyer will eventually notice. The correct answer is more useful anyway, because it lets you evidence the things a buyer actually cares about instead of citing a number that does not describe your product.

Is there a BIS standard for paper carry bags?

No. The Bureau of Indian Standards has not published a specification covering finished paper carry bags, and paper carry bags do not appear under any Compulsory Registration Scheme or Quality Control Order. There is consequently no BIS licence to hold for a paper carry bag and no ISI mark you can lawfully put on one.

This surprises converters because BIS clearly does standardise other bags. There are Indian Standards for jute bags, for school bags, for air travel bags, and, on the plastics side, for the pigments used in plastic carry bags and for compostable plastics. Paper carry bags simply were never given their own specification. The gap is real, not an oversight you can work around by picking the nearest-sounding number.

The practical consequence is that “BIS conformance” for a paper bag is not a single claim. It resolves into three separate, evidenceable things:

1. The base paper conforms to the relevant paper standard, evidenced by a mill test certificate.
2. The finished bag performs, evidenced by your own or a third-party laboratory’s test data on strength and handle attachment.
3. The bag is legal for its end use, which for food contact means the FSSAI packaging rules and compliant inks.

What is IS 14490 actually?

IS 14490 is the Bureau of Indian Standards specification for plain copier paper. It covers cut-size office paper in formats such as A4, A3 and legal, and its requirements are written for paper going through a photocopier or office printer: properties like opacity, brightness, stiffness and curl that matter to a printer feed path and are irrelevant to a bag. It has nothing to do with carry bags. The number circulates widely because plain copier paper is itself subject to a Quality Control Order, so IS 14490 turns up in genuine compliance conversations about paper and then gets misattached to other paper products. You can read the standard yourself: the BIS text of IS 14490 is published as “Plain Copier Paper”, first issued in 1997 and revised since. Nothing anywhere in its scope addresses bag construction, handle attachment, or load carrying.

If you have been citing IS 14490 on datasheets or tender responses, correct it. It is a small change that removes a real credibility risk, and no buyer has ever rejected a supplier for replacing a wrong standard number with the right evidence.

What is IS 1848 actually?

IS 1848 is the Bureau of Indian Standards specification for writing and printing papers, published in two parts covering grades such as bond, cream wove, printing maplitho, cartridge and poster machine glazed. It is a printing and stationery paper standard, not a kraft packaging standard.

The current IS 1848 Part 1 (2018) is titled “Writing and Printing Papers, Specification”. Any burst factor or Cobb figure attributed to IS 1848 “for kraft carry bag paper” is being quoted from the wrong document.

This one causes more damage than the IS 14490 error, because it is usually quoted with a number attached. A purchase order clause reading “80 GSM kraft per IS 1848” is unenforceable in a dispute: the standard it names does not specify the material being bought. If that clause is in your POs, it is worth fixing before it is ever tested.

Which Indian Standard actually covers the kraft paper in your bags?

IS 1397 is the standard for kraft paper for packing and wrapping, and it is the one a paper bag converter should be citing for base paper. The current edition is IS 1397:2020, “Kraft Paper for Packing and Wrapping, Specification (Third Revision)”, maintained by BIS committee CHD 16.

IS 1397 grades kraft paper into Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3, and sets requirements across properties including burst index, tensile index, folding endurance and moisture content. These are the properties that actually determine whether a bag survives being loaded, carried and set down, which is why this is the standard worth writing into a purchase order. Its scope covers paper for wrapping and general packing, and explicitly excludes paper intended for corrugated board box manufacture, so it is the right reference for bag-grade kraft and the wrong one for corrugation. That this is the operative standard is visible in how government procurement actually buys the material: tenders on the Government e Marketplace list kraft paper as “Kraft Paper for Packing and Wrapping as per IS 1397”, specified by grade. If you want to know which number a procurement officer recognises, that is the observable answer, and it is not IS 14490.

For what the individual properties mean and how they are measured on incoming reels, our burst factor, tear index, and porosity testing guide covers the tests themselves, and the paper converter glossary defines the terms. To turn the standard into an enforceable purchase order clause, our base paper procurement checklist sets out what to specify and what evidence to demand with each consignment.

What applies when the paper bag holds food?

Where the bag carries food, the binding requirements come from the FSSAI Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations 2018 rather than from any carry bag specification. Those regulations govern materials in contact with food and require that printing inks used on food packaging conform to IS 15495.

IS 15495 is “Printing Ink for Food Packaging, Code of Practice”, currently in its 2020 first revision. It sets out which substances must not be used in inks for food packaging and requires that the printed surface does not come into direct contact with the food. For a converter printing on food-service bags, this is a genuine, citable compliance obligation, unlike the standards it is often listed alongside.

Food contact is where a paper bag supplier faces real regulatory exposure, so it deserves more attention than the BIS question that usually dominates the conversation. Our food-grade paper bag compliance guide covers the FSSAI position, ink and mineral oil migration, and what export markets ask for on top.

What should you put in a tender when a buyer asks for BIS conformance?

Answer the buyer’s underlying question rather than their wording. A procurement team asking for “BIS conformance” wants assurance on material, performance and legality, so give them evidence under those three headings and name the standards that genuinely apply.

The fourth row is increasingly the one that decides QSR and export tenders, and it is a separate system from BIS entirely. Our guide to which sustainability certifications actually win QSR contracts covers FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody, what the major chains have committed to, and the EU Deforestation Regulation timeline for exporters.

Since no BIS specification defines a paper carry bag’s performance, state your own test method alongside your numbers. “5 kg static load held 60 seconds, tested to our internal method, sample per lot” is honest, checkable, and stronger than an unattributable claim of conformance to a standard that does not cover the product. Buyers accept declared methods; they do not accept numbers that evaporate when checked.

Why the IS 14490 myth persists, and what it costs

The error spreads because it looks authoritative and nobody checks. IS 14490 is a real BIS standard with a real Quality Control Order attached, so a number that is genuine in its own domain gets copied from one supplier datasheet to the next until it appears settled. Trade directories, tender templates and competitor spec sheets then reinforce each other, and the citation survives because paper carry bags have no correct number to displace it.

The cost lands at the worst moment. A technical buyer who checks the standard finds it describes copier paper, and the credibility damage extends past the one clause to everything else on the sheet. Rebuilding that impression is far more expensive than getting the reference right in the first place.

Standards are also the part of a specification most likely to be read literally in a dispute, which is the other reason to be exact. Regulatory pressure on paper packaging keeps rising, as our EPR briefing for paper packaging converters sets out, and the converters who fare best under scrutiny are the ones whose paperwork holds up line by line.

FAQ

Is IS 14490 the standard for paper carry bags?

No. IS 14490 is the Bureau of Indian Standards specification for plain copier paper, meaning cut-size office paper in formats such as A4 and A3. It does not cover carry bags, bag construction, or handle strength. For the kraft paper used in bags, the relevant standard is IS 1397.

Is BIS certification mandatory for paper carry bags in India?

No. There is no BIS specification for paper carry bags, so there is no compulsory registration, no licence to obtain, and no ISI mark that can lawfully be applied to a paper carry bag. Obligations that do apply come from the FSSAI packaging rules for food-contact use and from input standards such as IS 1397 for the base paper.

Which IS standard should I put on my paper bag datasheet?

Cite IS 1397 for the kraft base paper, with the grade and GSM. If the bag is used for food, reference the FSSAI Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations 2018 and state that inks conform to IS 15495. For finished bag strength, give your tested values and name the test method, since no BIS standard defines them.

What is IS 1848 if it is not the kraft paper standard?

IS 1848 is the Bureau of Indian Standards specification for writing and printing papers, covering grades such as bond, cream wove, printing maplitho and cartridge. It is a stationery and printing paper standard. Kraft paper for packing and wrapping is specified in IS 1397 instead.

Can a buyer still ask for IS 14490 conformance?

They can, and some vendor questionnaires do, because the error is widespread on the buying side too. The productive response is to note that IS 14490 covers copier paper, then supply what they actually need: the IS 1397 grade and mill certificate for the base paper, your bag performance data with the method stated, and food-contact compliance where relevant.

Last reviewed: August 2026

Correction, 4 August 2026: an earlier version of this article described IS 14490 as the Indian Standard for paper carry bags and IS 1848 as the standard for kraft paper, and set out audit checkpoints, clause references and statistics on that basis. Both attributions were wrong. IS 14490 covers plain copier paper and IS 1848 covers writing and printing papers, and the kraft packing standard is IS 1397. The article has been rewritten and the incorrect figures removed.

If you are specifying kraft for a carry bag programme, our food wrap and carry range lists each grade with a downloadable spec-sheet PDF covering GSM band, burst factor, Cobb value and food-contact status, so you can check the numbers against your brief before you speak to anyone. If the published spec looks close but not exact, write to our technical team and we will tell you plainly whether a grade can hold your requirement.

Browse all Pakka articles.