Amid the row over animal fat found in ghee used to make the famous Laddu Prasadam of Tirupati Balaji temple in Tirumala, the temple administration on Sunday said that the ghee was never tested for adulteration in the history of the temple. Talking to the media, Executive officer of Tirumala Tirupathi Devastanam (TTD) Shyamala Rao said that they have started testing the ghee in the last three months, after which the matter came to light.
Notably, a test on ghee samples provided by TTD conducted by the National Dairy Development Board’s “Centre of Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food” (CALF) laboratory in Gujarat showed the presence of beef fat, pig fat, fish oil and several types of vegetable oil, whereas ghee should contain only dairy fat. TTD has already started the process of blacklisting the suppliers.
#WATCH | Tirupati Laddu Prasadam row | Executive officer of Tirumala Tirupathi Devastanam (TTD) Shamala Rao says, "We established a system of testing ghee for adulteration in TTD for the first time in the last three months, never in the history of TTD we have tested ghee for… pic.twitter.com/0QxwqSjVqd
— ANI (@ANI) September 22, 2024
Shyamala Rao said, “We established a system of testing ghee for adulteration in TTD for the first time in the last three months, never in the history of TTD we have tested ghee for adulteration in outside labs.”
He further added, “We don’t have the in-house capacity to test. It is the first time that we have started checking and we will continue that. If someone tries to supply any adulterated thing, we will naturally blacklist them and other legal actions will be taken. TTD also trying to establish an in-house lab which is going to be donated by NDDB shortly.”
The TTD Executive officer announced that purification rituals will be conducted in the temple to restore the sanctity. He said that adulteration was found in ghee supplied by earlier suppliers, and no adulteration has been found in ghee supplied by current suppliers, which include Alpha Milk Foods and Nandini Ghee.
The TTD had said that they decided to get the ghee tested after numerous complaints about the deteriorating quality and taste of the famous prasadam laddus. Shyamala Rao said that after he took over, the CM expressed concern on the ghee procured and the quality of the laddu which is considered to be very sacred and offered as ‘Prasadam’ to Lord Venkateswara Swamy.
He had said, “Any deviation in the quality will cause doing ‘apavithram’ (doing something which is not sacred). He wanted me to take steps to ensure that the sanctity of this temple is restored including getting pure cow milk ghee. We started working on that.”
Earlier he had said that the ghee suppliers took the advantage of the fact that TTD didn’t have labs to test ghee and it also didn’t get the product tested outside. Rao also noted that due to procurement based on lowest price bids, the suppliers quoted very low prices, which are very unviable to supply pure dairy ghee.
In the meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, who first revealed the issue, has announced the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) to investigate the ghee procurement for Tirupati laddu. He also ordered an audit of procurement process of raw materials for all temples in the state.
Speaking to reporters, he said, “We are forming a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising of officers of IGP and above posts. The SIT will submit a report to the government and we will take action based on that report so that such things are not repeated.”
