Palani temple to automate prasad manufacturing

The delicious handmade panchamirtham, the prasadam made out of five fruits and pure sugar and sugar candy, at the famous Lord Murugan temple in the Palani hills in Tamil Nadu might give way to the mechanised fruit mix as the temple administration plans to set up a high-tech automated plant to make it.

The panchamirtham of the Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple was famous like the laddu of the Lord Balaji temple at Tirupati and regarded as the oldest form of jam.

Temple authorities told PTI that their main objective in introducing the automated plants was to produce the prasadam in hygienic conditions.

Established at the cost of Rs 1.5 crore, the machine would not only help make the process of the prasadam easier but it would also increase production as the demand was increasing daily.

The temple authorities claimed that the taste of the prasadam produced by the machine would not vary as it did during the manual process.

As many as 13 workers would be operating the machine. The panchamirtham  has a long shelf life and is suitable for conumption even without refrigeration.

"If the seal of the prasadam pack is opened, it will be suitable for consumption upto a week. If the seal is not opened it is fit for consumption upto a month,"  temple authorities said.

Trial production had already started, the officials said.