KINGSTON, Jamaica — The National Compliance and Regulatory Authority (NCRA) is reminding food manufacturers to ensure basic requirements are met to be registered.

In a release on Thursday, inspector in charge of the Food Safety Inspectorate of the NCRA, Janiese Pinnock, said manufacturers must ensure that sanitation and security needs are satisfied.

“The place needs to be clean and windows and doors must be secure. It has to be pest-proof. Doorways shouldn’t have any spaces or crevices where insects or animals can crawl through. You also need to have some pest control system and sanitation system. Those are some of the basic things needed when deciding to manufacture food,” she advised.

Pinnock went on to say that food establishment operators must also have a system in place for their formulations.

“Ensure that it is consistent. It would be good if you have the formulation, and if it is a low-acid canned food, you have your process schedule, because that is a higher level of your formulation,” she added, while noting that the NCRA does not discourage persons who start from home, the standards must be adhered to.

“You can start in your kitchen but know that when you’re producing for commercial use it has to be separate. You cannot be making your commercial products and cooking at the same time; you cannot be having your children running around you and you cannot have your favourite dog coming in the kitchen to be visiting you,” she said.

“Ensure that you are properly covered, including your hair. If you have nails on, you wear your gloves, wear closed-toe shoes and your clothes are at least clean, because you do not want to contaminate the product that you are making. Those are the basics,” Pinnock added.