Rahul Gandhi’s Response on Alleged Use of Animal Fat in Tirupati Laddu Stirs Controversy

Animal Fat in Tirupati Laddu: The locally ruling Telugu Desam Party on Thursday said laboratory reports have revealed the following: ‘Beef tallow’ contaminated oil in the ghee used in preparing the world famous Tirupati lord Venkateswara Swamy Temple ‘prasadam’.

This added more fire to the incident after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the previous YSRCP government used animal fat for making the consecrated laddus offered to crores of followers visiting the Lord Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Tirumala.

It is not the first time when people have raised questions on the prasadam that is offered and sold at the Tirumala temple. Earlier on, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has openly condemned the alleged severe compromise on the quality of the latter.

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There were no standard processes in the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) – the board that oversees the temple on the hill — to check the quality of cheese from where ghee for the Laddu is prepared. However, the board has formed a new sensory perception laboratory in which staff is being trained for quality check in Mysuru.

During the raging controversy, the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), which manufactures ‘Nandini’ dairy products, averred that its product, ‘Nandini ghee’, has never been supplied to the TTD during the previous regime of the JD(S)-Congress coalition but only after the change of governance in Karnataka. It issued the statement despite Naidu choosing not to mention the federation.

It may be recalled that KMF chairman Bheema Naik had accused the temple body of purchasing inferior ghee when he spoke to the media in August 2023.

But the then TTD executive officer AV Dharma Reddy said the temple body buys cow ghee only from but those suppliers who clear twin parameters of highest quality and the least cost or L1 bidder through e-tender system rejected the charges.

In addition, he said KMF which has never been an L1 bidder had supplied ghee only once in the past 20 years, including not delivering the consignment on time.

The TDP also said that the adulteration in the prasadam has been provided by NDDB CALF Ltd, a livestock laboratory based in Gujarat on the ghee samples.

Accompanied by a party spokesperson, Anam Venkata Ramana Reddy in a press conference produced what the latter claimed to be a laboratory report that showed the presence of ‘beef tallow’ in the sample of ghee provided.

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However, state government or the TTD failed to give any approval on the lab report that had been collected by the members. The purported report also noted what it claimed to be ‘lard’ which is pig fat and fish oil in the samples. The sample receipt date was 09 July and report was on 16 July.

CALF is a diverse intellectual facility at the National Dairy Development Board at Anand in Gujarat while being an analytical laboratory.

A huge row developed and a bitter word tight followed Naidu’s statement that animal fat was used to adulterate the ghee which was used for preparing the well know Tirupati prasadam.

He accused seeming that in the previous government low quality materials were used when preparing the laddus. But the youthful administration of Mr YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has dismissed the allegations.

“Even Tirumala laddu was made with substandard ingredients… they used animal fat instead of ghee,” he claimed.

He said that while earlier it was ghee mixed with oil, now it was pure ghee which was being used and everything had been cleaned at the temple including food items, thus resulting in better quality.

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