Chennai: Following complaints over the quality of prasadams served at temples, Tamil Nadu govt has decided to standardise the offerings.Hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR&CE) department has notified a master scheme for preparing and selling 10 varieties to ensure devotees get prasadams of uniform quality, quantity and price across the state.The standardisation will cover recipes and ingredient ratios, portion and batch sizes, pricing and packaging. Temples have been told to prepare prasadam on their premises and not outsource it. The department will fix their prices based on the cost of raw materials, LPG, labour and packaging. Aavin ghee and supplies procured at cooperative store rates will be used, said a circular from HR&CE commissioner T G Vinay.“Most temples outsource sale of prasadam and we don’t know how it’s prepared. There’s a demand that it should be made and sold by temples,” said an official.The scheme covers 10 common offerings. A 50g laddu, produced for ₹13, will now be sold for ₹20, while 250g of panchamirtham, which costs ₹26 to make, will be sold at ₹30.Production will follow specified batch sizes, including 1,000 laddus, 2,000 panchamirtham containers and 150 portions each of puliyodharai (tamarind rice) and sakkarai pongal.The ecofriendly packages will have to adhere to Rule 27 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. They will carry manufacturer or importer’s name, address, generic name of the commodity, net quantity, date of manufacture or packing, MRP and unit sale price, and consumer contact for complaints.Shrines that use traditional recipes and those offering prasadam outside the 10-item list can submit separate cost proposals to the joint commissioner, additional commissioner or commissioner.
