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Journalism of Courage
In the wake of the controversy over the alleged adulteration of ghee used in the preparation of laddoos at the Sri Venkateswara temple in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati, authorities in Odisha’s Puri district have have decided to test the quality of ghee being used at the Jagannath Temple.
Puri collector Siddharth Shankar Swain said that though there were no allegations regarding adulteration of ghee used at the temple, administration wants to test the quality to allay any doubts.
“We will also discuss with Omfed, the state’s apex milk federation, to set a standard for ghee used at the shrine,” Swain told reporters in Puri.
He said authorities would ensure that only “standardised ghee will be used for prasad at the shrine”.
The district administration has already discussed with the food safety authorities to check the standards of materials stored at present, the collector said.
This comes in the wake of allegations that the ghee used in the Tirupati temple to make laddoos distributed as prasadam was adulterated with animal fat.
Thousands of devotees visit the Jagannath Temple in Puri every day and have prasad. The temple kitchen has the capacity to cook for one lakh devotees a day.
The mahaprasad is cooked in earthen pots using firewood, and ghee is the key ingredient. It is first offered to Lord Jagannatha, and then to Goddess Bimala, after which it becomes mahaprasad.
The administration has also decided to check the quality of ghee used for diyas in the temple, the district collector said.
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