Now, prasadam to get quality check: Licences of kitchens to be reviewed

COIMBATORE: Food and offerings prepared in temples in Coimbatore district will soon come under the food safety department's scanner. The department has been instructed to collect samples of prasadam prepared in temples regularly and check if they are fit for consumption. The licences of temple kitchens will also be reviewed over the next few months. 

At the health steering committee meeting at the district collectorate on Tuesday morning, collector Archana Patnaik told food safety department officials to monitor closely food prepared in temples. 

"Since large numbers of people congregate at temples, we have been told to keep an eye on the food and prasadam served there," said designated food safety officer Dr R Kathiravan. The department has not received any complaints about temple prasadam. "This is purely a safety precaution," he said. 

Most of the temples run by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department in the state as well as by private trusts hold licences for their kitchens, said the official. "The kitchens are hygienic and well-maintained but some of them do not follow our rules when it comes to packaging of prasadam and serving it on clean banana fibre plates and cups," said Kathiravan. 

Across the state, the HR&CE department says it keeps a tight rein on temple kitchens to ensure hygiene. The department has officials in charge of quality checks so that the prasadam as well as the food served in the annadanam halls is clean and fresh. An official of the HR&CE department said most kitchens had been automated to prevent contamination of food and only the best ingredients were procured. Packaging too has been improved so that the prasadam can stay fresh and withstand travel. 

At the Palani Murugan temple, for instance, the entire process of making the panchamirtham prasadam, is mechanized from the peeling of bananas to the packaging. Previously, people would stamp bananas to pulp but the process has been automated to ensure cleanliness as well as meet the huge demand, said an official. 

Kitchens in other large temples such as Tiruchendur are also automated, while smaller temples like Parthasarathy temple in Triplicane in Chennai and the Srirangam temple have separate kitchens with trained staff. The prasadam is prepared following traditional recipes and specific ingredients have to be procured. 

The department makes all efforts to ensure that the taste is authentic though it now has to mass produce most of these offerings, said an official. 

The Coimbatore administration, however, is taking no chances. "We will be reinforcing our rules and advisories," said Kathiravan.