Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Federal regulators are amending StarKist Seafood Company's temporary permit to test market canned tuna, by adding three additional manufacturing locations — two in Thailand and one is the Solomon Islands.

In a decision publicly released last Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it’s also increasing the amount of test product. The federal agency notes that the amendment will allow StarKist “to continue to test market the test product and collect data on consumer acceptance of the test product.”

In 2014, the FDA issued a temporary permit to Pittsburgh-based StarKist to market test products identified as canned tuna products. The permit allowed for the test product to be manufactured at the company’s plant in Ecuador, and StarKist Samoa Co., in American Samoa.

“We issued the permit to facilitate market testing of products that deviate from the requirements of the standard of identity for canned tuna” in federal law.

Then in 2016, FDA extended the temporary market permit, allowing StarKist to “continue to measure consumer acceptance of the products and assess the commercial feasibility of the products, in support of a petition to amend the standard of identity for canned tuna.”

Now, FDA is amending the temporary permit to allow the test product to be manufactured at Tropical Canning (Thailand) Public Co., LTD., and ISA Value Co., LTD., — both in Thailand and Tri Marine’s Soltuna Ltd., a tuna loining and canning processor facility, in the Solomon Islands.

FDA said it’s also amending the temporary permit to increase the amount of test product to be market tested to 213,500,000 pounds (96,841,971 kilograms) in retail cans of various sizes. All other conditions and terms of this permit remain the same.

Samoa News notes that Tri Marine, a US based international company, previously owned and operated the now closed Samoa Tuna Processors cannery plant in Atunu’u — the facility is currently being leased by StarKist.