Some 165 cases of ackee were sent to the United States last Friday. - contributed

Associated Press:

Jamaica has resumed shipments of its beloved national fruit to the United States, where fears of a toxin that can occur naturally in the red-skinned ackee prompted the government to order them off store shelves last year.

Some 165 cases of ackee - among the first shipments of the fruit since the December 2005 recall - took off from Kingston on Friday, December 8, bound for Florida, said Norman McDonald, chairman of exporting company CanCo Ltd.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which issued the original recalls, approved the resumption of imports under new screening procedures that began last month.

Only firms that have shown themselves capable of keeping the toxin under control will be allowed to export the fruit to the United States, said FDA spokesman Michael Herndon.

"Products from three firms were tested in Jamaica and, based on those results which came in early this month, their shipments were released for shipment to the U.S.," he said Tuesday in an email.

The popular fruit, which contains three edible pods, produces a compound known as hypoglycin that can reach dangerous levels when it is picked too early and is not ripe. The toxin can cause a drop in blood sugar and vomiting, and, in rare cases, convulsions, coma and death.

The recall affected fruit sold in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

McDonald said the recall cost his company as much as US$550,000 (approximately J$36 million) in revenue over the past year.

Extremely tough

"Last year was extremely tough for us, indeed, for everybody in the ackee export industry," he said.

The FDA said it will establish with the Jamaican government common standards to better regulate ackee sales in the U.S. Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke said Jamaica's standards bureau sent teams to ackee processing plants across the Caribbean island to ensure screening procedures are up to date.

Ackee trees are native to West Africa, and many believe they came to Jamaica aboard slave ships.

Sauteed like a vegetable, the golden flesh of the ackee resembles scrambled eggs. Ackee mixed with dried and salted codfish, once a staple of slaves, is now Jamaica's national dish.

Jamaica has been looking to find a niche in the growing exotic foods market in the United States with the savoury fruit, and has continued to send ackee exports to Britain and Canada, where there are large communities of Jamaicans.