THE ACTIONS of some unscrupulous producers are placing the ackee export market at risk. After years of effort, the U.S. market has been recently opened to ackee exports providing rigorous safety standards are adhered to. Among the requirements for exporting
ackees to the United States is Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification.
The country stands to earn millions of dollars and more jobs created in supplying the Jamaican ethnic market and the wider American market with ackee. Indeed, last year just over US$8 million (J$496 million) was earned in exports of the product.
The HACCP system identifies, evaluates and controls hazards for food safety. The Bureau of Standards has identified that untested, non-certified ackees could be placing the market at risk. As usual people want to beat the system even if their actions destroy the system. Apparently, the labels of certified ackee processors and suppliers are being traded and are used by uncertified operators trying to get into the profitable but highly regulated market, and labels may also be falsified.
Last month in one operation, some 380 cases of canned ackees were seized by the Bureau. The standards organisation has correctly gone back to full inspection of all ackee-processing facilities.
It is imperative that vigilance be maintained to protect the sector. Only the most rigorous adherence to established standards will satisfy those food safety concerns.
We note that just last Thursday, Scotiabank Jamaica made a donation of $25 million payable over five years to the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS) at the UWI, Mona, to pursue further research on essential elements and potentially harmful substances in foods grown on Jamaican soils. This collaboration between business and science to undertake research of practical significance to the society is to be commended.
It was similar careful scientific research, and not just our folk experience, which got our ackee into the difficult United States market. The Bureau of Standards must leave no stone unturned, no loophole unplugged in preserving that market even as it acts to ensure the safety of foods on the Jamaican market, whether
produced locally or imported.
Consumers facing the huge and complex international food industry are highly dependent on the standards and safety authorities to protect their interests. The expected firm actions of those authorities must be based on sound science.
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