Hare Krishna!
All Glories to Radha Shyamsundar.
All Glories to Krishna Balaram.
All Glories to Gaur Nitai
All glories to Sri Sri Panchatattva                 3rd August 2007
Respectful  Prabhuji ,
Please accept my most humble obeisance at  your lotus feet.
All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga; All glories to Srila Pabhupada.
This has reference to the  sample of one tin of unopened ghee sent  to us
at Bangalore to testing for adulteration with animal fat.
There had been some reports of adulteration of popular brands of ghee with
animal fat in the news network. In this connection my wife Devaki Madhavi
Devi Dasi  at Vrindavan  had requested me to test the sample of one popular
ghee used by the temple kitchen and the same sample was sent to us, last
week through Archak Prabhu , who as kind enough to deliver the same to us.
The sample has been of Dynamix Cow Ghee, M/s.Schreider Dynamix Dairies Ltd,
Pune.
We have got the sample tested and it has proved positive , that is it
contains animal fat beyond any doubt, as per the said testing house.
We give below the following observations and information gathered for your
kind reference in relation to ghee etc in India.
1.We contacted several testing lab with this request and finally zeroed on
one testing house M/s.Anatech Laboratory and research center. This decision
was based on the fact that whereas most others had outdated testing
facility which could only  tell of adulteration with other fats and were
not  able to specifically and categorically state that animal fat has ben
mixed.
2.We have been told that the  test is based on the Fancier-Transbraned
Infra -red spectrum Replication test.  and is an accurate test.
3.Our sample: Even the physical observation of the sample shows very
clearly that there is adulteration. There is no homogeneity. Any ghee would
be uniformly homogenous, and not half semi-solid and the other bottom half
fully caked hard.
This most likely contains about 15% animal fat . The quantitative analysis
can be done but this needs further testing and higher cost.
4. Incidentally the said labarotary tests several milk and milks products
for private and government agencies. In his experience they have tested
several products and national brands.
Their observation is as follows:
i.Of all the brand in India Amul is the best brand for ghee and butter and
all milks products.
ii.Even Nestle is adulterated with about 5% vegetable oil fats.
iii.Most ghee is a mixture of Cows and Buffolo milk in the branded segment.
iv.Nilgiris of Bangalore which is famous for its ‘pure’ Cows ghee brand as
per this laboratory was initially pure cows ghee but now is mixed with
buffolo milk.  However Nilgiris and Nandidni of Bangalore does not have any
adulteration with vegetable oil fat.
v.The ghee constituents of leading brands contains 65% cows milk and the
rest buffalo milk.
5.Incidentally it is possible to test if a given sample  of milk contains
pure cows milk . There is a particular harmone which is contained only in
cows milk and this can be detected by a sophisticated  test , with a
certain accuracy.
Remarks:As most milk products like ghee has only about 5% margin as Amul
maintains a strict price factor which the other competitor find hard to
beat. Hence  their way to profitability is adulteration with vegetable oil
and for larger profits they adulterate with animal fat.
The remark of the testing house with  his large experience is that if one
needs to  have pure Cow’s Ghee the only way is to make  inhouse as even the
best brand like Amul though pure milk contains buffalo milk.
For your kind information and reference.
We hope the above is in order.
Your  humble servant,
Hari Purushotam Das
(Hari Babu. K.)
Our E Mail Address: supriyae@vsnl.com
haribabu@vsnl.com # – Prahladananda Swami – 4/8/07; 2