Amid the controversy surrounding the alleged presence of animal fat in the ghee used to prepare Tirupati laddus, the Odisha govt has decided to send the ghee used in Puri Jagannath Temple for quality test.
Puri district collector Sidharth Shankar Swain said the move was aimed at preventing adulteration in the offerings to the deities at the 12th century shrine.
The decision comes a day after a Puri-based lawyer, Dilip Baral, submitted a plea to the collector, who is also the deputy chief administrator of Jagannath temple administration, suggesting a proper check on the quality of ingredients, including ghee, used for preparation of ‘mahaprasad’ in the temple kitchen.
Swain said although no complaint had been received regarding the quality of ghee, the administration decided to get it examined in the backdrop of the Tirupati laddu controversy.
Govt-owned Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Omfed) has been supplying ghee to the temple for the last few years. According to sources in the Suar Mahasua Nijog, an association of servitors who prepare the ‘mahaprasad’ daily, about 6,000 litres of ghee is purchased from Omfed every month at nearly Rs 700 per litre.
Swain said the food safety and quality control authorities had already been informed to carry out the inspection of the ghee and other raw materials used in the shrine kitchen.
As of now, a variety of items such as rice, khichdi, dal, dalma, curry and sweets are cooked daily for about 25,000 devotees, and served as ‘mahaprasad’. “We will also check the quality of the ghee used for lighting diyas. In 2017, the temple administration had made it mandatory for vendors to sell ghee supplied by Omfed, following allegations of adulterated ghee of other companies being sold to the shrine. We will check if the vendors are using Omfed ghee or not. Strict action will be taken if any violations come to our notice,” Swain said.
