The Bureau of Standards said yesterday that it would be sticking to its two-month timetable for inspection of all 18 factories which process ackee for export, as the review enters its second and final month.

The standards bureau has taken the microscope to the manufacturing processes of plants packaging the sensitive export crop, anxious not to revert to the time when the American market had banned it.

Bureau personnel have been checking for untested canned ackees, improper coding and falsified labels since September 29.

It is taking 60 days to run ‘organised’ inspections during which overseas sales of the product have been suspended, but the temporary hold, says the bureau “is necessary to protect the integrity of the local ackee industry and the export market.”

In that regard it is identifying irregularities as well as working with the packagers to eliminate the problems.

The bureau, in a statement, said “it was committed to promoting the international competitiveness of Jamaican products and protecting the health and safety of consumers.”

Only ackee processed and tested prior to September 29 can be exported at this time.

The inspection should be completed by the end of this month, and the bureau has said it will inform the public if there are any new developments.

Information on the inspection is sketchy, but the standards agency told the Observer yesterday that so far nine factories have been reviewed one month into the lock-down.

“We do not want to jeopardise what we are doing. We don’t want to go into the specifics. It is a very sensitive issue and what you have received there (in a news release) is what we are prepared to say,” a spokesman for the bureau said.

Six of the 18 factories under inspection have Hazard

Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification – Canco Limited in St Thomas; Ashman Food Processors in Bushy Park, St Catherine; Taijule at Palmers Cross, Clarendon; Westbest in Westmoreland; Island Packers Limited; and Southern Fruits Processors.

Normally they would have been exempt from batch-by-batch testing, but that exemption was lifted temporarily to facilitate the current inspections.