FNB News - Enjoy festival and sweets with a little caution

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FESTIVAL

Enjoy festival and sweets with a little caution

Friday, 16 August, 2013, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Manish Malhotra & Vaibhav Verma

India is a nation with a penchant for sweets. Sweets are a part of our culture even from Vedic times. Today, even as in the past centuries presenting sweets conveys gratitude, affection, respect, joy or reward. Even an unexpected visitor is welcomed with a sweet beverage, fruit or confection.

There are countless types of sweets in India, all with hundreds of regional variations. Bengal alone is believed to have around 2000 varieties. Even the word ‘sugar’ comes from the sanskrit ‘sharkara’.

The living art of preparing sumptuous sweets, puddings and desserts has been preserved largely by successive generations of temple cooks, and professional sweet makers known as halwais.

The temple at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh which prepares 100,000 boondi laddoos every day to give as prasadam (benediction) to the 50,000 visiting pilgrims is a living example of the Indian sweet-making tradition,

Sweets are given in every occasion. No matter whether it is a marriage or ceremony, birthday or festival, we love to eat those sweet sugary delights and can’t wait it to melt in our mouths. It really feels great to have a bite of those yummy delicacies!

India has diverse culture and so are it sweets . Interestingly, sweet preferences in India often vary depending on the geographical region.

North Indian sweets
People here prefer Bal Mithai, Balushahi, Gajar Halwa, Gulab Jamun, Jalebi, Jhajariya, Kalakand, Kheer, Kulfi, Motichoor Laddu, Malai ki Gilauri, Malai Laddu, Ras Malai, and Sohan Papdi .

South Indian sweets
The South Indians like to have Adhirasam, Ariselu, Dharwad pedha, Double ka meetha, Kuzhi paniyaram, Pootharekulu, Boorelu, Bellam Pasham, Bellam Garelu, Badushaah, Kubani ka meetha, Mysore pak, Coconut Laddu, Peni, Sheer korma, Unni appam, Kashi Halva, Manoharam, Sajjige and many other sweets.

West Indian sweets
There are lot of options here. One could choose from sweet delicacies like Adadiyu, Basundi, Chirote, Dhondas, Dudhi Halwa, Gharge, Ghari, Gulpoli, Kaju Katli, Karanji, Kharwas, Magas, Mahim Halwa, Modak, Mohan thaal, Puran Poli, Besan Ladoo, Shankarpali, Shrikhand, Sutar feni, Sweet Potato Halwa .

East Indian sweets
Eastern people love to have Amriti, Chhena Jalebi, Chhena Kheeri, Chhena Payesh, Kalo jam, Malapua, Komolabhog, Lyangcha, Mihidana, Pantua, Rabri, Rasgulla, Rasmalai, Sandesh, Sitabhog, Shor Bhaja, Shor Puria

Though the types of sweets vary from one region to another in India , the spirit of love behind giving sweets prevails equally in every region . Indian sweets may be classified into six categories,

Halva puddings based on grains, fruits, seeds, legumes, and vegetables such as carrots, winter melon, yam or summer squash. Famous examples are carrot halva, and semolina halva.

Juicy Cottage cheese confections simmered in sugar syrup, such as rasgoola, rajbhog, chamcham, ras malai, and raskadamba.
Milk fudges such as pera, burfi, and milk ladoos.

Grain-based syrup sweets such as rose-flavoured crepes called malpoora, succulent milk balls in rose scented syrup (gulab jamuns), deep-fried crispy pastry loops in saffron syrup (jalebi), flaky pastry swirls with cardamom glaze (balushai), dry, glazed pastries such as khaja, and melt-in-the-mouth chickpea flour fudge cakes (mysore pak).

Classic milk puddings such as Bengali rich rice pudding (payasa), toasted vermicelli rice pudding (seviya kheer), creamy milk pudding with juicy tangerine segments (kamala payasa), and creamy almond and rice dessert (badam firni).

A miscellaneous category of sweets are prepared from yogurt cheese such as shrikhand, fresh coconut confections like the famous Bengali camphor and pepper-laced raskara, and sweets made from sesame seeds.

This is the festival season. While it is time for celebrations by exchanging sweets, it is also the time for brisk business for our neighbourhood shopwallahs. In the next few days, tonnes of sweets, bakery products, dairy products, and processed foods will be sold.

However we are not sure how much of it will be of good quality and safe for consumption. Many of the mouth-watering sweets we savour during the festival season may be of substandard quality or may be adulterated. The recent raids across the country have unearthed several kilograms of adulterated sweets prepared with adulterated ingredients.

For preserving sweets , manufacturers use formalin, a chemical used for preservation of corpses. Consuming formalin-mixed products can even damage kidneys and liver. It can cause asthma attacks and cancer. Pregnant women are most vulnerable to this chemical and if consumed during pregnancy there are chances of delivering a physically challenged baby.

Similarly the 'edible' silver foil' or 'Barkh' used for coating the sweets, are made from metals that can be harmful for health.

Tests conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has confirmed that the silver foil used for coating sweets is increasingly being adulterated with aluminium. Aluminium is a hazardous metal. Aluminium accumulates in body tissues, especially in the bones. It can also enter the brain. During pregnancy it can cause damage to the placenta and foetus.

The process of making this silver foil is extremely unhygienic. It involves long hours of beating the foil in pouches of leather and goat epidermis and intestines. It can also cause the remnants to mix into the silver foil.

How to test silver foil to know if is good or bad -Gently rub the silver foil between the fingers. If the silver foil is genuine it will virtually disappear. While contaminated or impure foil rolls into a mass. (However this is a crude test.)

Tips for buying festival mithai or sweets

1. Avoid buying sweets from lesser known places. Buy from a reputed store. The other options is to prepare them in your own kitchen

2. Buy fresh sweets without silver foils

3. Diabetics should look for special sweets prepared especially for them

4. Lessen the Mithai numbers and substitute using dry fruits and chocolates

5. Avoid sweets with syrup - they usually will have more calories

6. Only buy as much as you or your family can consume in a day
7. Ensure that you buy sweets made from seasonal fruits as they will remain fresh for longer periods.
8. Sweets made of milk and milk products must be avoided during festive seasons.
Follow these simple steps and enjoy your way to a healthy and joyful festival!

India can rightly be called the land of sweets. The range of sweets available throughout the length and breadth of the country is mind boggling and no traditional Indian meal is complete without a sweet Any festival or ceremony is incomplete without sweets. Sweets are an integral part of celebrations. So enjoy the festival and sweets with a little caution.

(The authors are assistant professors at Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology, New Delhi.)