Uttarakhand Char Dham: The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) has issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) to ensure the quality of prasad and bhog in Badrinath, Kedarnath Dham and other temples under its control. This SOP comes after the case of adulteration in laddus at Tirupati temple, which raises concerns about the purity and safety of prasad at religious places. 

Vijay Prasad Thapliyal, Chief Executive Officer of BKTC, has tried to ensure under this new initiative that all the food items used in Prasad and Bhog follow the highest standards and special attention is paid to hygiene in their manufacture. Accordingly, the materials used in Prasad and Bhog, such as rice, oil, ghee, spices, and saffron will be purchased only from trusted traders. 

It has also been instructed that these materials will be regularly checked, so that their purity and quality can be ensured. Special care has been taken that the oil used in preparing bhog and prasad should not be used more than three times, so that the quality of the food items remains intact and any kind of adulteration or contamination can be avoided.

Those preparing the Prasad will have to keep these things in mind.
The SOP also directs that the employees engaged in the preparation of bhog and prasad will have to follow the highest standards of hygiene. In this, the personal hygiene of the employees and the cleanliness of the places where food is prepared will be ensured. Also, care will be taken in the process of storage and distribution, so that the prasad and bhog do not get spoiled or there is no possibility of adulteration in them.

Keeping food items in stock for a long time has also been prohibited, so that freshness is maintained and use of spoiled food items can be avoided. Apart from this, a monitoring process has been established to regularly check the quality of Prasad and Bhog, under which food safety audit will be done at least once a year. This audit will be done in laboratories authorized by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which will confirm the purity of the Prasad and devotees visiting temples can get pure and safe Prasad.

Cleanliness and purity will be taken care of.
This step has been taken after the recent incident in Tirupati Balaji temple, in which complaints of adulteration in the laddus distributed as prasad were reported. After this incident, BKTC decided that special care will be taken of the purity and quality of prasad in Badrinath and Kedarnath Dham. Vijay Prasad Thapliyal emphasized that the quality and purity of prasad and bhog is an important part of the faith of the devotees, and any kind of negligence in this direction will not be tolerated.

He said that with the implementation of this SOP, special attention will be paid to cleanliness and purity in the preparation of Prasad and regular checking of food items will be done. This new SOP will be implemented in all the temples under BKTC.