TTD inaugurates advanced lab to test food quality, ghee in-house

Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) chairman BR Naidu on Tuesday inaugurated a food quality testing laboratory in Tirumala, which will test ghee and prasadam, officials said.

The chairman noted that samples, which had to be sent to other states for testing earlier can now be tested directly in Tirumala itself with state-of-the-art equipment, a release said.

According to TTD executive officer J Syamala Rao, earlier there was no facility to test the quality of ghee in Tirumala and now for the first time equipment like GC (Gas Chromatograph) and HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatograph) have been installed.

He noted that this equipment has the ability to instantly analyze adulteration and quality percentage of ghee.

Equipment worth Rs 75 lakh was donated by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) of Gujarat, said Rao.

Further, he observed that lab staff and potu (kitchen) workers have undergone special training at Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) in Mysore.

Moreover, he said arrangements have been made to check the quality of prasadams in this lab to provide results immediately.