Catalogue of Jamaican Standards

The Bureau of Standards Jamaica is a statutory body established in 1968 by the Standards Act (Act No. 57 of 1968) in order to promote and encourage higher standards for products, practices, and processes. The Bureau’s mandate is achieved by:

preparing standards for particular products, practices, and processes;
checking products against claims of conformity to published standards;
issuing of licenses to use the Certification Mark (mark of conformity);
testing and calibrating instruments and appliances;
promoting research and education in standardization;
promoting the implementation of quality control procedures in production and service systems.

The Bureau of Standards is controlled by a Standards Council, which is responsible for the policy and general administration of the Bureau. Day-to-day operations are managed by an Executive Director, assisted by Divisional Managers. A number of well-equipped laboratories carry out tests in such areas as food, chemistry, metallurgy, microbiology, building materials, furniture, non-metallic, packaging, electrical and mechanical engineering, and weights and measures.

The Bureau formulates standards through the dedicated work of thirty-six (36) standing committees. These committees comprise representation from consumer interests, the public and manufacturing sectors, among others. Coordination of Technical Committee work and the publishing of Standards is the responsibility of the Standards Department.

The following is an outline of the procedure presently followed in the preparation of standards documents:

1. The preparation of standards documents is undertaken upon the Standards Council’s authorization. This may arise out of representations from national organizations or existing Bureau of Standards committees or Bureau staff. If the project is approved, it is referred to the appropriate Technical Committee or if none exists a new committee is formed, or the project is assigned to Bureau staff.

2. If necessary, when the final draft of a standard is ready, the Council authorizes an approach to the Minister under whose portfolio the Bureau falls, in order to obtain the formal concurrence of any other Minister who may be responsible for any area which the standard may affect.

3. With the approval of the Standards Council, the draft document is made available for general public comment. All interested parties, by means of a notice in the press, are invited to comment. In addition, copies are forwarded to those known to be interested in the subject.

4. The committee considers all the comments received and recommends a final document to the Standards Council.

5. The Standards Council recommends the document to the Minister for publication.

6. The Minister approves the recommendation of the Standards Council.

7. The declaration of the standards is gazetted and copies placed on sale

8. On the recommendation of the Standards Council, the Minister may declare a standard compulsory.

9. Amendments to and revisions of standards normally require the same procedure as is applied to the preparation of the original standard.

10. Standards are revised every five years. In cases where no changes are made, the standard is considered confirmed and the year of confirmation stamped on the cover of the document.

Content of Catalogue

1. Animal Feeds

2. Building and Associated Materials

3 Contraceptives

4. Cosmetics

5. Engineering - Electrical

6. Engineering - Mechanical

7. Environmental Management Systems

8. Food

9. Furniture

10. Industrial, Chemical and Allied Products (ICAP)

11. Information Technology