Enjoy ghee, forget cholesterol

Karnal, Apr 30 (UNI) You may now be able to savour desi ghee with all its taste and fat without bothering about the much-feared cholesterol and the dreaded heart attack.

The scientists at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) here have succeeded in developing a process for the preparation of ghee wherein 80 to 85 per cent of its cholesterol content could be removed.

In fact, during the laboratory scale experiments the NDRI researchers were able to remove more than 90 per cent cholesterol content from the ghee developed by the new technique, said Dr Darshan Lal Ghai, Principal Scientist, Dairy Chemistry Division, under whose guidance the research was conducted.

When the commercial feasilbity of the process was evaluated by upgrading the process to pilot plant scale, the trials had demonstrated that between 80 to 85 per cent cholesterol content could be removed from the ghee during its production at a large scale, Dr Ghai told UNI.

This, he said, was a major breakthrough for the dairy research scientists in India as far as the preparation of low-cholesterol ghee was concerned.

Desi Ghee is prepared from cow or buffalo milk or a combination thereof. It ordinarily contains 0.25 to 0.40 per cent cholesterol.

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