Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter
THE BUREAU of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) and Northern Caribbean University (NCU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to carry out tests to determine the cause of the high hypoglycin levels in local ackees.
This after the U.S.-based Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned 31 cases of ackees shipped from Jamaica in December last year due to unacceptably high levels of hypoglycin. The FDA subsequently requested that a study be carried out to determine the cause of the high toxic levels of the naturally occurring chemical. Shipments of ackee from Jamaica to the U.S. have since ceased.
Dr. Omer Thomas, the outgoing executive director of the BSJ said at the signing of the MoU on Tuesday at the BSJ office in Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew that the agreement would result in significant economic benefits for the country given the sensitivity of export regulations governing ackee, as well as other agricultural produce.
ACKEES TO BE TESTED
"Under this MoU the Bureau of Standards will provide certain types of instrumentation which is critical to the analysis of hypoglycin in ackee," Dr. Thomas explained. The tests will be carried out on ackees grown mainly in central and western Jamaica.
He explained that the MoU would not only seek to develop facilities for the determination of Hypoglycin A in ackee, but also the presence of heavy metal in terrestrial and aquatic agricultural produce. "They are already doing some work (testing for) heavy metals in the soil so they will look at the accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural produce which are critical to the deliberations at the Codex Alimentarius (food standard) meetings in Rome," he told Farmers Weekly.
Vice-president of academics at NCU, Dr. William Smith, noted that the engagement of the research between NCU and the Bureau, will provide information that will serve to improve the quality of production.
