Only 3 Aravana tins per pilgrim

Production curtailed after extra moisture content found

Aravana distribution at Sabarimala was badly hit on Saturday morning by the drastic reduction in its daily production. The Food Safety Department had earlier imposed certain restrictions on the production of the prasadom after excess moisture content was found in a batch.

Devaswom executive officer V.S. Jayakumar said the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) was forced to restrict Aravana supply to three tins to each pilgrim from Saturday owing to the short supply of the prasadom.

The Food Safety Department has fixed the moisture content in Aravana to a maximum of 10 per cent. A ‘koottu’ (12,000 tins of 250 ml each) of Aravana manually prepared at the Aravana plant recently was found to have a moisture content of 10.8 per cent.