SABARIMALA: The Devaswom Bench of the High Court has directed the Sabarimala Special Commissioner to submit a report on a complaint alleging that mold was found in unniappam prasadam purchased by devotees from the Sannidhanam. The incident was reported by a group of 12 devotees from Kadungallur, Kochi, who found the mold when they opened the prasadam at home.

The complaint states that all the devotees received stale unniappam. According to themold in u Sannidhanam authorities, appam and aravana prasadam are tested daily in a laboratory and their quality and moisture content are recorded in official reports. The report revealed that the unniappam made on the day in question contained 12.6 percent moisture, exceeding the permissible limit of 10 percent for this type of prasadam.

The initial conclusion points to the high moisture content as a potential cause of the mold infestation in the unniappam. Last year, due to insufficient production, there were frequent disruptions in the supply of appam and aravana prasadam. To prevent this from happening again, 40 lakh tins of aravana and a proportionate amount of appam were produced in advance as a reserve stock for the current pilgrimage season. The investigation into the quality control of these items is ongoing.