Agriculture Ministry Moves to Improve Standards and Safety of Imported Foods

MONTEGO BAY — The importation of food will be done under new regulations as of early next year, as the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries moves to improve the standards and safety of all imported foods into the country.

According to Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Robert Montague, the move has come about as part of Jamaica’s Food Safety Policy, recently approved by Cabinet.  He said that the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries and Health have been mandated to actionise the policy.

The Minister was delivering the keynote address at the 2011 National World Food Day ceremony, held at the Maggotty High School, in St. Elizabeth, on October 14.

“One of the first things we are doing at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is to put in place the requisite regulations to govern the safety of the food that our people consume.  And chief  among this is the requirement, come early next year, that countries that export food to Jamaica must also meet the standards laid down  by  Jamaican law,” he said.

Mr.  Montague pointed out that food processors in Jamaica have to be registered and their operations inspected by the Ministry of Health, Factories Corporation, Parish Councils and Bureau of Standards, and if they do not meet all the necessary criteria, they cannot operate as a food processor.

He insisted that any food being imported into Jamaica as of early next year will have to meet all the required standards that apply to local food processors. “If the processing plants cannot meet the Jamaican standards, the food cannot come into Jamaica as long as I am Minister,” he emphasised.

Meanwhile the Minister pointed out that the Government has developed a food security strategy, which is aimed at increasing national production through bolstering technology transfers, encouraging partial replacement of imported staples and promoting greater consumption of local foods.

By Bryan Miller, JIS Reporter