Vijayawada: The famous Kanaka Durga Temple on Indrakeeladri Hills on the banks of River Krishna has won a certificate from the Food Safety and Standards Authority, for providing quality prasadam and ensuring proper food, water and other amenities to the devotees.
The certificate, first for a temple in the state, was given under the scheme ‘Blissful Hygienic Offering to God’.
Though the Andhra Pradesh government has identified 11 major temples to get the FSSAI certification under BHOG phase-1 a few months ago, the Durga temple got the certification as it fulfilled nearly 43 parameters.
On an average, nearly 10,000 devotees visit the temple a day. In the last nine-day Dasara festival, nearly 27 lakh devotees visited the temple.
The food safety authorities had trained a select workforce in the temple on a fast- track mode, on procurement and storage of high quality raw material and their use in the preparation of prasadam, like laddus, pulihora, food for annadanam and supply of potable water.
The food safety department state nodal officer Poornachandra Rao said, “The certification awarded to the Kanaka Durga temple is of immense utility to the thousands of devotees. We would give such certification to the remaining 10 major temples in the state in two to three months.”
