Demand for laddus from the Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Andhra Pradesh has remained high, despite the claims. - Photo: Facebook/Tirumala Tirupati Vaibhavam
NEW DELHI: A controversy over animal fat and subpar ingredients being detected in famous laddus offered by a temple in India has not diminished the popularity of the traditional doughy sweet.
The Venkateswara Swamy Temple, in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh - eponymously known as the Tirupati Temple because of the district it sits in - is renowned for its laddu offering, particularly due its large size.
The laddu is an Indian traditional sweet that is orange or brown and spherical. It is generally made of sugar, flour, nuts and dried fruits.
It is typically no bigger than a golf ball and weighs about 150g, but the famed Tirupati laddus, as the ones sold by the temple are known, can be more than four times that size.
On Sept 20, a report by NDDB Calf, a Gujarat-based private laboratory specialising in testing animal feed and dairy products, stated that samples from ghee used in Tirupati laddus consisted foreign fat such as palm oil, beef tallow, fish oil and lard.
These non-vegetarian food items are prohibited in the Tirupati Temple.
The findings created an uproar, with politicians, actors, and the general public all sharing their concern.
Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) opposition leader Rahul Gandhi took to X on Sept 20 and said the findings were “disturbing”.
“Lord Balaji (the presiding deity of Tirupati Temple) is a revered deity for millions of devotees in India and across the world. This issue will hurt every devotee and needs to be thoroughly looked into,” he said.
Yet demand for the Tirupati laddus has remained high, according to J Shyamala Rao, executive director of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the trust which manages various temples in India, including the Tirupati Temple.
India Today reported on Wednesday (Sept 25) that Rao reassured devotees that they need not worry about the state of the laddus as the purity of the food product has been restored through a “purification ritual”.
According to a report by The Hindustan Times on Sept 24, the purification ritual was conducted at the TTD shrine and lasted four hours, although no details on what it entailed were reported.
Data released by the TTD board also showed that between Sept 20 and 23, over 1.3 million laddus were sold.
On Sept 23, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued a notice which requires Tamil Nadu-based firm AR Dairy Food to “show cause” for allegedly supplying substandard ghee to the Tirupati temple, India Today reported.
AR Dairy is one of the suppliers of ghee to the TTD temples, India Today stated.
The company, however, has denied the allegations and posed a challenge to NDDB Calf’s findings. - The Straits Times/ANN
