TTD rejects 42 truckloads of ghee for failing to meet standards: Official

Tirupati: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), official custodian of Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, has rejected 42 truckloads of cow ghee in the last one-year for failing to meet its stringent quality standards, said an official on Wednesday.

Each truckload, carrying a consignment of up to 18 tonne ghee, is audited for purity and quality by a multi-disciplinary committee drawn from various wings of the temple body such as health, vigilance, engineering and others, including a senior chemist from the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI). "Between July 22, 2022 and June 30, 2023, we have rejected 42 truckloads of ghee for failing to meet our standards," P Murali Krishna, general manager (procurement), TTD told PTI.

These trucks are required to ship the clarified butter maintaining a temperature of 60 to 70 degrees Celsius, said Krishna. Moisture percentage by weight, butyro refractometer reading at 40 degrees Celsius, free fatty acids as a percentage of oleic acid, and minimum R M Value are taken into consideration. Baudouin, mineral oil, foreign colours, melting point and rancidity tests also undertaken, he said. The tests are carried out at TTD's Water and Food Analysis Laboratory on samples received from the marketing godown. The samples are taken from every consignment and the truckloads are allowed inside only after passing the tests. Even before winning the tenders, Krishna said that dairy experts audit prospective suppliers' plants and samples in nationally accredited laboratories.

Besides using ghee as an ingredient in the world famous Tirupati laddu, the general manager said it is used for food preparations such as annaprasadam, annadanam. Several local temples, educational institutions and others connected to TTD are also using it. Ghee is supplied through trucks to the main Tirumala and Tiruchanooru temples while others TTD recipients receive them in the form of 15 kg tins, including some temples in other districts. Similarly, the same ghee is also used for lighting lamps in TTD temples as part of deeparadhana ritual.

The quality of ghee being procured by TTD has assumed significance in the wake of Nandini brand milk producer Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) chairman Bheema Naik alleging that the temple body was procuring low quality ghee. TTD executive officer A V Dharma Reddy said that the temple body procures cow ghee only from those suppliers who pass the twin tests of uncompromising quality and least cost (L1 bidder) through a rigourous e-tender process, dismissing Naik's allegations. Moreover, he said that KMF, which never qualified as an L1 bidder had supplied ghee only once in the past 20 years, including failing to deliver the consignment on time