LAHORE: South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations have approved harmonised and uniform standards for three food items. While the final common standards draft on another four sectors have been prepared and sent to South Asian Regional Standards Organisation (SARSO) Secretariat for approval.
After publication from SARSO, all SAARC countries will have to adopt the same standards as national standards, which will have great impact to boost regional trade among SAARC countries ultimately.
The decision was made at the 8th two-day meeting of Sectoral Technical Committee of SARSO on "Food and Agricultural Products", here at a local hotel on Thursday.
The meeting was hosted by Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA).
Engr Khalid Siddique, DG PSQCA, participated as chief guest, while the meeting was chaired by Nazir Hussain, Director Standards PSQCA, Khawaja Ghulam Muhayyuddin, Deputy Director SARSO, Programme Officer SAARC Secretariat Katmandu Manzoor Riaz, Deputy Director PSQCA Asghar Ali, Khurram Mateen and experts from all SAARC countries also attended it.
In the meeting, the experts approved harmonised and uniform standards on three food items including biscuits, refined sugar and code of hygiene practices and sent it to SARSO Secretariat for publication.
A discussion was also completed on common standards for instant noodles, skimmed milk powder, hydrogenated vegetable oil and black tea and final standard draft was sent to SARSO for final approval.
The committee also completed technical discussion on rice, spices, turmeric, red chilli and coriander for further discussion in the next STC meeting.
Some new items including potato, poultry meat, cumin, curry powder, fish and fish products, mango, orange and cardamum, were also taken up for technical debate and standardisation process while some new items dry fruits, safety standards on DNA combination products, proposed for building standards and harmonisation in order to facilitate the regional trade.
Talking to the media, Deputy Director Asghar Ali said the STC was working on more than 100 food products and produces along with testing methods for compliance purpose of these item, adding that SAARC people would soon find common standards on all the food and non-food products.
Two meetings of two different Sectoral Technical Committees on "Chemical and Chemical Products" and "Food and Agricultural Products" were held and experts vowed for harmonisation of standards for the SAARC nations.
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