Photo of halal-certified Thirumala Milk Product shared with false claims.
Claim
Thirumala Curd, Milk, Yogurt is now Halal. Soon, Thurumala Prasadam- Laddoos will be Halal certified. You can abuse me, but it is happening and we Hindus are letting it happen. If not Stop buying such Halal-marked products immediately.
Rating
Explanation
A photo of halal certified Thirumala whole milk yogurt pack is shared widely on Twitter with the claim that Thirumala curd, yogurt and milk are now Halal. The post further mentions that Thirumala prasadam laddus will soon be halal certified. Posts with a similar claim are seen with ‘boycott Tirumala dairy products’ hashtags. Some of the posts with such a claim can be seen here and here.
Yogurt is now marked as "Halal" …boycott these products pic.twitter.com/Qk7bKwimSm
— No Conversion (@noconversion) May 23, 2023
What is the truth?
When searching with relevant keywords we found Thirumala dairy products listed on multiple Indian websites but none labeled them as halal certified. Indiamart listed Thirumala curd on their website instead of Yogurt (sold in other countries as a replacement for curd sometimes). This product is mentioned with the tagline ‘thick and tasty’ and no mention of halal certification is found. We skimmed through all the Thirumala curd products listed on the website and ended up finding that none is halal certified.
The product Thirumala whole milk Dahi Yogurt is found listed on Instacart, karouncheese, new Indian Supermarket and other websites. All these websites are found to be out of India. The price of these products can be seen listed in dollars whereas the India Mart website lists the Thirumala Curd in Rupees. Even among the websites that listed Thirumala whole milk Dahi Yogurt, Instacart is found to mention the product with halal certification and other websites did not include the certification.
We contacted Mr.Laxman Rao, Assistant Manager, Sales Department, Thirumala Dairy Products, Hyderabad to know the truth. He told Youturn that the halal certified dairy products are not sold in South India but are exported to other countries that too the certification is only on request. Hence it is clarified that the product seen in the viral image is indeed a product of Thirumala Milk products, exported to other countries on request and is not being sold in India.
Thirumala Milk Products is a private company based in South India. One of the posts claim that Thirumala prasadam laddu is soon to be halal certified. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams is a trust under the control of the Andhra Pradesh government. And it has no relation with the private company Thirumala Milk Products.
Conclusion
It is found that the photo of halal-certified Thirumala whole milk Dahi Yogurt is an exported product and the certification is included in the export products only on request as clarified by the Thirumala Milk products’ assistant manager. The halal certified products are not sold in India.
