3.4K kg mouldy laddus destroyed at Rajasthan's Trinetra Ganesh temple

JAIPUR: A state food safety team conducted inspections at prasad and sweet shops located around the Trinetra Ganesh temple complex within the Ranthambore tiger reserve from Wednesday to Friday and discovered 3,470 kg of mouldy laddus in shops and godowns. The laddus were destroyed and samples sent to a laboratory for adulteration testing.

The health department sent the complete report of the inspection to the health department in Jaipur on Saturday. On Wednesday, the food safety teams found 840 kg of spoiled laddus from four shops that were found open. On the same day, the food safety officers did not find owners of the godowns present. They sealed the godowns. In the presence of the owners on Friday, they opened the godowns and recovered 2,630 kg mouldy laddus, which were apart from the 840 kgs laddus destroyed on Wednesday.

The laddus were prepared in anticipation of high sales during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival on Sept 7. However, due to unusual rainfall during that time this year, the turnout of devotees was significantly lower than expected, resulting in a large quantity of unsold laddus.

"The department's food safety team disposed of 2630 kilograms of spoiled laddus found in godowns of shops near the Ganesh Temple," said Dr Dharmasingh Meena, the chief medical health officer. The inspection and destruction of the laddus were carried out by Food Safety Officers Virendra Kumar, Ved Prakash Purvia, and Babu Lal Tagaya. Besides this, the health department found varying quantities of spoiled laddus in different shops, ranging from 160 kg to 550 kg. The laddus, which had been kept for an extended period, were buried near the temple to prevent human consumption.

Notices have been prepared for the shop owners under section 32 of the food safety Act, requiring them to maintain fresh laddus. The collected samples have been sent to a laboratory for analysis, and legal action will be taken against the shop owners if the laddus are found unsafe for human consumption, said officials.

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