Food Manifest 
Key Update
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested RSSVR Subrahmanyam, a serving official in the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Engineering Department, for his alleged role in the laddu prasadam ghee adulteration case. The SIT produced him before the ACB Court, which remanded him to 15 days of judicial custody. Subrahmanyam earlier served as TTD’s General Manager (Procurement) and supervised the purchase of key raw materials, including ghee for laddu preparation. He becomes the first serving TTD official to face arrest in this case.
Bribery and Food Safety Violations
Investigators say Subrahmanyam was part of the inspection team responsible for evaluating ghee manufacturing units. He allegedly approved substandard ghee as “quality compliant” in exchange for bribes from private suppliers. This directly compromised the safety and purity of the laddu prasadam, a high-volume food product consumed by lakhs of devotees every day.
Major Adulteration Revealed
Between 2019 and 2024, TTD produced 48.76 crore laddus. SIT findings show that around 20 crore of these were made using adulterated ghee. Laboratory tests reportedly found that nearly 40% of the ghee samples contained palm oil, palm kernel oil, and chemical additives—ingredients not permitted in desi ghee and a serious violation of food safety standards. The SIT also arrested suppliers allegedly involved in:
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Providing chemicals used in adulteration
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Running a fake desi ghee unit
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Supplying ₹250 crore worth of spurious ghee through proxy dairies in multiple states
Some dairies that supplied “ghee” reportedly did not procure any milk or butter, raising red flags about the authenticity of the product.
Breakdown in Procurement and Quality Control
The investigation highlights serious lapses in TTD’s procurement process:
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Blacklisted suppliers allegedly continued delivering ghee through proxy firms
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Quality checks and supplier verification were inadequate
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Technical inspection teams reportedly certified substandard ghee
These failures allowed unsafe and adulterated ghee to enter the laddu preparation system for years.
