"Detention Without Physical Examination of Ackees"

NOTE: The revision to this import alert dated 05/22 /2013 revises the product codes, clarifies the Yellow List heading, and standardizes the notes and description for each firm listed on the Green List. Changes are noted and bracketed by three asterisks (***).

Ackee is a tropical fruit that contains a natural heat-stable toxin, hypoglycin A. The ingestion of hypoglycin A may result in no symptoms or symptoms that range from mild (e.g., some vomiting) to severe (e.g., vomiting with profound hypoglycemia, drowsiness, muscular exhaustion, prostration, and possibly coma and death).

The toxin, hypoglycin A, is found at high levels in unripe arils (the fleshy portion of the fruit), seeds, raphe (thin membrane between the seed and the aril), and rind of ackee (roughly at a level of 1,000 parts per million (ppm)). Once ackee fully ripens, the hypoglycin A drops to negligible levels in the arils and raphe, making them safe to consume (although the raphe is removed prior to packaging). However, the rind and seeds still have high levels of hypoglycin A when the fruit is fully ripe and should not be consumed.

The above facts, together with the possibility that unripe ackee, ackee seeds, or ackee rind could get into finished ackee products during processing, led FDA to conclude that all shipments of ackees and ackee products, except for ackee products from those firms identified in the Green List to this alert, should be detained without physical examination. The processors listed in the Green List have demonstrated to FDA that they have food safety controls in place to ensure that only properly ripened ackees, without seeds or rind, are included in finished products.

Districts may detain, without physical examination, shipments of ackees of all product types (raw, frozen, canned, dried, etc.), except for ackee products from firms listed on the Green List below.

Based on the potential for harmful levels of the toxin, hypolgycin A, from improper processing of ackee, FDA intends to assess all processors of ackee for export to the United States on a plant-by-plant basis prior to considering the admissibility of their ackee product(s) offered for import into the United States. As foreign processors are identified to have food safety controls in place to control for the toxin, hypoglycin A, in their ackee products, the firm and product(s) will be identified on the Yellow List of this Import Alert.

If a firm wishes to request inclusion on the Yellow List to export their ackee product(s) to the U.S., they should forward information supporting their request to FDA at the following address:

Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
Division of Enforcement
Food Adulteration Assessment Branch (HFS-606)
5100 Paint Branch Parkway
College Park, MD 20740

Release of Articles Subject to Detention Without Physical Examination Under This Import Alert:

For those firm/product(s) on the Yellow List of this Import Alert, in order to secure release of an individual shipment subject to detention without physical examination, the owner or consignee should provide the private laboratory analytical results of a representative sample of the shipment which verifies the product does not contain a level of hypoglycin A that may render the product injurious to health.

Sampling and analytical records should be submitted to the appropriate FDA District compliance office for consideration per the notice of detention. For further information regarding private laboratory analyses, please reference FDA's ORA Lab Manual, volume III, section 7. Following receipt and review of private laboratory results, the FDA may collect and analyze audit samples before rendering a final decision on the admissibility of the article.

Requests for Removal from Detention Without Physical Examination Under This Import Alert:

Foreign processors listed on the Yellow List of this import alert requesting removal from detention without physical examination should provide documentation with sufficient evidence to demonstrate future shipments of their ackee product(s) will not be adulterated.

For guidance on removal from detention without physical examination, refer to FDA's Regulatory Procedures Manual, Chapter 9, "Detention Without Physical Examination (DWPE)."

If a firm, shipper or importer wishes to request removal from detention without physical examination, they should forward information supporting their request to FDA at the following address:

Food and Drug Administration
Division of Import Operations (HFC-170)
12420 Parklawn Drive, ELEM-3109
Rockville, MD 20857

Or be sent via email: Importalerts2@fda.hhs.gov

For questions or issues involving import operations, contact the Division of Import Operations *** Import Operations and Maintenance Branch *** at (301) 796-0356.

For questions or issues concerning sample preparation or analytical methodology, contact the Office of Regulatory Science at (301) 796-6600.

For questions on policy or sample collection recommendations contact the Office of Compliance, Division of Enforcement, CFSAN, at (240) 402-1750.

*** Import Alert Language last updated: April, 2013 ***



Yellow List of Import Alert #21-11
List of firms that have not met the criteria for exclusion from Detention without Physical Examination (DWPE) under this Import Alert (a.k.a. Yellow List)

Green List of Import Alert #21-11
List of firms and their products that have met the criteria for exclusion from Detention Without Physical Examination (DWPE) under this Import Alert (a.k.a. Green List)

Ackees, all product types (raw, frozen, canned, dried, etc.). The ackee may also be referenced as "akee", "akee apple", "vegetable brain" (seso vegetal in Spanish), "akie", or "ishin."

"The article of food is subject to refusal of admission pursuant to section 801(a)(3) of the FD&C Act in that the article appears to have been prepared and packed under insanitary conditions, whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health [Adulteration, Section 402(a)(4)]."

OASIS charge code - INSANITARY

PAF: (BIO) Naturally Occurring Toxins REG

PAC: 07819 - Foodborne Biological Hazards