2024-09-26 05:26:30
Mumbai : Amidst the ongoing controversy over Tirupati laddu, a video of a rat on a box of prasad at Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai is now going viral on social media. However, Shri Siddhivinayak Ganapati Mandir Trust (SSGT) has denied the allegations. Shiv Sena leader and SSGT President Sada Sarwankar said on Tuesday, ‘Lakhs of laddus are distributed daily and they are prepared in a clean place. The place seen in the video is very dirty. It is not a temple place. The video has been shot somewhere else.’ In the alleged video, rats are seen on a torn packet of laddu kept in a blue tray. Sarwankar said that we will investigate the CCTV. This investigation will be done by a DCP rank officer. He said that the temple ensures that the prasad is prepared in a clean place. Ghee, cashews and other ingredients are first sent to the Municipal Corporation lab for testing, and are used only after getting a positive report from there. Water is also tested in the lab.
Food Administration in action
After the alleged video of a rat in the prasad of Siddhivinayak temple went viral, the Food and Drug Administration has also come into action. A top FDA official has said that an investigation will be conducted in this matter. Food safety officials will visit the temple and conduct an audit. At the same time, the temple administration has said that we will request the police to investigate this video.
A senior FDA official, on the condition of anonymity, said, ‘It is not clear whether the video is of the temple, but it has gone so viral that it is necessary to investigate it.’
100 parameters are checked
Actually, FDA and FSSAI officials conduct audits in big temples. This includes what ingredients are being used to make the prasad, where the items are being made and stored, whether they have the proper permission or not, whether the employees making the prasad have a health certificate or not, only after meeting these 100 parameters is the Bhog certificate given to them.
This certificate is proof that the bhog (prasad) has been prepared using very clean and good products. The validity of this certificate is 2 years, after which it is audited again.
Audit of temple offerings
Siddhivinayak Temple is very famous not only in the country but also abroad. People send the prasad received from the temple to their loved ones abroad, but after an alleged video went viral on Monday, the FDA has once again decided to audit it. FDA Joint Commissioner D.R. Gahane said that after the video went viral, we have asked our Food Safety Officer to audit the temple’s offerings.