By Sanjeev Kumar Patro
Bhubaneswar: Is the time ripe for country’s ancient big hindu temples having their in-house labs to test the quality of ghee or foods? Ghee has been the key ingredient of mahaprasads/prasads (divine offerings) in all Hindu temples across the country.
This question haunts the conscience of all devotees/consumers post the scandal of adulterated ghee hitting the hoary and sacred Tirupati ladoos.
Though the Thirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) has initiated punitive actions against a Tamil Nadu based private diary firm AR Diary (Raaj Milk and Ghee), the temple authorities have decided to put on stream an in-house testing lab from December this year.
“Suppliers take a chance by supplying adulterated products as there was no in-house adulteration testing lab in the temple, said JS Rao Exexutive officer of TTD.
The EO recently informed media that National Diary Development Board (NDDB) has offered to donate ghee adulteration testing equipment worth Rs 75 lakh to the temple authorities, and the lab will be operational by December or January next year.
“The TTD will set up a sensory lab (Testing using five senses) so that trained personnel can taste and smell the ghee. CFTRI Mysore had come up with a standardised procedure to aid with,” he told media persons.
Interesting fact to the fore has been that the Tirupati temple has conducted this quality check of ghee for the first time. So one cannot say how long the adulterated ghee has been on use for temple's divine offerings.
PURI JAGANNATH TEMPLE GO TIRUPATI WAY?
Chastened by the Tirupati Ghee row,a Puri based lawyer Dilip Baral submitted a plea to the collector SS Swain seeking a quality check of the ghee supplied to Puri temple for making the divine offerings to the lords.
The Collector SS Swain said the SJTA (Sri Jagannath Temple Authority) will recommend testing of ghee samples used for offerings (Kotha and Baradi) to the lords. This shows, like Tirupati, quality check of products supplied to Puri Temple has not been a practice.
As per Puri Mahasuar association, in Shri Jagannath Temple, state-owned cooperative diary OMFED produced ghee is used. Unlike Tirupati, the Jagannath temple procures ghee from open market (wholesaler/retailer shops).
In the given backdrop, it’s high time Puri Jagannath temple need to go the Tirupati way and have its in-house sensory lab and ghee test equipment. The SJTA may take up this with National Diary Development Board (NDDB).
ODISHA RATING IN FOOD SAFETY INDEX
Even as OMFED gee is used in Puri Jagannath Temple, it’s hard to vouch for the purity in the backdrop of poor showing by Odisha in the Food Safety Index 2023-24 of the FSSAI.
In the 6th State Food Safety Index released by FSSAI, Kerala was at the number 1 spot, Odisha languished at rank number 13. A look at the scoring rate by Odisha reveals the following.
- Total score in food safety by Odisha is 47 in 2023-24
- In the Food Safety Index of 2019-20, Odisha rank was 13th among 20 states.
- So, no improvement in state's ranking over the years, which means State government has not implemented serious measures to stem the food adulteration tide
- The score in 2019-20 was 45.
FOOD ADULTERATION IN ODISHA
As per the reports available with Union Health Ministry, in Odisha, out of 1168 samples taken, 260 were found to be substandard or adulterated. A look at the data accessed reveals the following.
- In Odisha, samples taken for checking has been very low
- In the year 2018-19, only 327 samples were taken for test check.
- The samples taken now stood between 1168 -1250.
- The adulterated or substandard samples range between 21-28 percent. (means nearly 3 out of 10 samples are adulterated ones)
- Kerala, the top State in Food Safety Index, carry samples for test counting 6971 -7855, despite a smaller State vis-a-vis Odisha (size and population wise).
- Low sample lifting in Odisha attributed to poor human resources, though the State scored moderate (58%) in food testing infra and surveillance ranking of Food Safety Index 2023-24.
