From: Mermaid . (britannica@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Feb 27 2002 - 14:58:29 MST
I simply HAD to look for that DeccanHerald article on 'copper ghee'. I found
a cached version of your DeccanHerald article. I am not surprised that it is
entirely irrelevant to the topic of discussion. The article is a op-ed about
a consumer report about 15 brands of ghee. Did you believe that all that is
'ghee' is encompassed within these 15 brands? Lets not forget that the
article is dated 1999. God!! You are an embarrassment!! I did explain the
process from milk-ghee didnt I? At which point did you imagine that bottled
ghee consumer reports are pertinent to the discussion at hand??
Also about ghee and rancidity from a random search:
http://www.purityfarms.com/faq.html
Why is it that butter goes rancid and Ghee doesn't?
Butter is over 16% water and contains milk fat solids that can spoil. We
cook out the water and remove the milk solids, so Ghee has a long shelf
life.
http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit04162001/column.asp
Keep ghee and butter at room temperature. Butter will eventually turn
rancid; ghee will not. It's the moisture in butter that promotes decay.
Virtually moisture-free, ghee has no such problem. It will retain its
original freshness and flavour for months, even without refrigeration.
<snip>
Choose your ghee
There was a time when an omelette made of crocodile eggs and rice flour,
fried in ghee was highly recommended by ancient medicine men for vigorous
health and rejuvenation. Sounds delicious and carries the promise of
instilling a certain ferocity in the eater! But now we must be content with
less exotic ghee dishes such as jeera puris, halwas, kesari bhath and
pulaos. But the question is, which ghee should we buy?
Recent tests and accompanying homework done by the Consumer Education and
Research Society in Ahmedabad has resulted in a framework of choices that
buyers can refer to for choosing from 15 brands of ghee currently being sold
in grocery shops. The brands scrutinised were Amul, Anik, Milkman, Devi,
EveryDay, Farm Fresh, Gayatri, Gits, Goa Dairy, Nandini, Nova, RKG, Sagar,
Verka and Vraj Gopi.
The ghee was tested for flavour, texture, colour and suspended impurities.
Farm Fresh rated the highest on the sensory score. Burnt ghee often gives
out a bad smell but in this area, EveryDay, Anik and LG-I scored a perfect
10. Devi however, gave out a burnt smell and scored negative with –3.0
according to the BIS method of negative scoring.
If you are put off by the curdy smell that underdone ghee gives off, you
might prefer to choose Goa Dairy which scored a perfect ten, followed by
Farm Fresh and Devi.
Ghee also goes rancid and here, only Farm Fresh scored a perfect ten.Burnt
ghee also turns a nasty brown when overheated. Over here too Devi scored
negative.The perfect ten scorers were Anik, Farm Fresh, Gayatri and Nova
with a creamy colour. EveryDay, Milkman and LG-I followed with 9.8. Over all
Farm Fresh came out on top.
In the testing for impurities Gayatri and Verka showed no impurities and
scored ten followed by Nandini and Farm Fresh. Again Devi scored the least
at 7.
Says CERS ‘’If you want a ghee that makes you want to smell it long and
deep, then you would be happy with Farm Fresh. Considering flavour, colour,
texture and presence of impurities, it scored the highest at 93 and was
followed by EveryDay and Verka with a score of 91.
Gayatri, RKG and Verka did not conform to the standards of Agmark for
sediment. Goa Dairy, Anik and Devi did not have the Agmark label but they
too had sediment. Though all the brands conformed to the PFA copper limit of
not more than 30 parts per million, the international standard Codex only
allows 0.05 ppm. Only EveryDay, Goa Dairy, Milkman and Sagar and the two
loose samples showed no copper.
Both BIS and Agmark have no standards for DDT while the PFA Act has set a
maximum limit of 1.25 mm. This is odd since DDT is banned from use in
agriculture! DDT was found in all the samples. Significantly, Devi showed
Heptachlor, while Amul, Farm Fresh, Gayatri, Gits, Goa Dairy, Sagar,Nandini
and Nova showed Lindane.
Old or improperly stored ghee becomes rancid since the peroxide value rises.
This gives an off-flavour. So CERS advises that you should check the
condition of the pack before buying your ghee. The loose samples showed the
highest peroxide levels while Anik, Milkman, Goa Dairy and EveryDay met the
BIS standard for peroxide value.
All Agmark brands must carry the label in the allotted colour but excepting
RKG, none complied! CERS warns you to check Goa Dairy carefully before
buying as it did not give the expiry date and the batch number or the
packaging date. Gayatri, Nandini and RKG (all Agmark brands) as well as Devi
did not print the expiry date. ‘’Do not buy a pack without the expiry date’’
cautions the Society.
Another dismaying fact was that 13 out of the 15 brands tested gave less
than the labelled weight! Only Gits and Goa Dairy passed the test. As for
prices, RKG was the most expensive at Rs. 104 while Goa Dairy was the lowest
priced at Rs. 67.50 for 500 gms.
The best buy according to CERS is EveryDay. Buying loose portions may not be
a good idea since CERS found the loose samples they tested – of LG-I and
LG-II from Naranpura and Kalupur to be adulterated with vanaspati.
The Society has also recommended that the PFA Act should bring the maximum
permissible levels of copper down to the Codex levels and should also cover
parameters like adulteration with vanaspati and other substances and
microbial contamination.
The study also reminds us that too much ghee is bad for the heart and it was
found that death due to coronary heart disease was higher in people of South
Asian origin than in whites or blacks according to a survey done by the City
Hospital, Birmingham, England. The reasons were that Asians bought foods
with the highest fat content and fried their food more often. They also ate
more butter, eggs and milk. However, don’t cut ghee out entirely but use it
judiciously and burn it off with exercise says the Society in its consumer
magazine Insight (Vol. 21. No. 4 July-August 2001. ) E-mail address:
cerc@wilnetonline.net, phone: 7489945/46, 7450528.
Talking about fats, the same issue has an interesting back page filler that
fat persons lured by weight-reduction products might like to read. It is
about a product called Almased Vitalkost which claims ‘’No exercising, no
starving. Safe-natural way to reduce weight. All in just 7 days!’’ But its
literature adds that a controlled diet and light exercise would be needed
too! Says CERS ‘’Plus it didn’t matter to Almased that the Drugs and Magic
Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act,1954 prohibits ads on obesity
treatment. CERS asked the company a few sharp questions ‘’Weight reduction
is a long term process. Is Almased a magic formula that reduces one’s weight
in 7 days?’’
Has Almased received government approval where it is marketed?’’ The company
has not replied to the consumer society. The buyer must decide whether he
really wants a product costing a whopping Rs. 2150 which comes along with
such dubious claims that may not even be legally permitted!
<snip end>
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