Kochi, Nov 2 (IANS): The Kerala High Court has asked the Travancore Devasom Board and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to respond to a petition from a devotee of the famed Sabarimala temple, seeking a standard operating procedure developed by an expert body for procurement and quality checking of the ingredients for preparing appam and aravana prasadam at the renowned hilltop shrine.

The appam and aravana is the special holy ‘prasadam’ of the Sabarimala which is a must-buy by all devotees who come for the pilgrimage. A good portion of the earnings of the temple comes from the sale of these prasadam items.

The devotee’s petition also wants an assurance that it’s now essential to set up a state-of-the-art laboratory for inspection, sampling, testing and quality checking of the ingredients used for preparing the appam and aravana.

Incidentally, the ingredients for the prasadam are bought through an e-tender process much before the two-month-long festival season begins in the third week of November.

The petition from the devotee comes at a time when in the previous festival season. the court intervened in the supply of the aravana after it was found out that the cardamom used contained insecticide residues exceeding the permissible limits.

Situated on the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats at an altitude of 914 metres above sea level, Sabarimala temple is four kilometres uphill from Pamba in Pathanamthitta district, which is around 100 km from the state capital city.

The temple, which bars the entry of girls who have attained puberty, is accessible only on foot from the Pamba River.

As per practice, before setting off to the holy shrine, a pilgrim normally undertakes an intense 41-day penance where he does not wear footwear, wears a black dhoti, and sticks to strict vegetarian food. Every pilgrim carries an 'Irumudi', a kit which contains coconuts which are broken just before climbing the 18 steps, on his head during the pilgrimage and without it, no one is allowed to step onto the holy 18 steps at the 'Sannidhanam'.