KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB)to set up a permanent food safety laboratory to ensure the quality of the food served at Pampa and Sannidhanam.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice C T Ravikumar issued the directive while considering a report submitted by the Sabarimala special commissioner S Jagadish. At the end of the mandalam festival, 28,000 cans of aravana prasadam were burst inside the store at Sannidhanam. Special commissioner in his report submitted that the sugar content in the damaged aravana containers were below 60 percentage which eventually led to the bursting. He said that according to the laboratory report, the aravana got fermented inside the can. The expert opinion is that if the sugar content in the aravana was maintained above 60 percentage, it would not have fermented. The devaswom commissioner submitted that he had asked the joint-commissioner of food safety to appoint two members for setting up a lab to monitor the quality of the ingredients used for making aravana. The court held that the arrangement now made in Sannidhanam and Pampa for conducting tests for food safety should be a permanent measure. The court asked the TDB to ascertain from the commissioner of food safety, the necessary equipment and basic infrastructure, so that the office of the food safety commissioner can be authorised to select appropriate apparatus and chemicals. TDB would set up the infrastructure for the lab. “The sugar content should be maintained above 60 percentage to avert any damage. No jaggery other than that was cleared by the food safety lab in Pampa shall be utilised to make aravana. TDB shall ensure that no sub-standard prasdam will be distributed to the devotees,” the court held.
Source: http://expressbuzz.com
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