About the Book
Due to globalization, international trading of food products is taking place in large quantities. Each country adopts different quality standards for food products. All countries realize that standard health and safety regulations are needed for the whole world. In 1994, at the Uruguay round, the World Trade Organization (WTO) framed Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement), which provided rules and discipline for the establishment and application of measures to protect human, animal and plant life and health from risk associated diseases, food additives, toxins, contaminants, and disease-causing organisms in food. These SPS measures ensure that food products come from a disease-free area, in addition to checking the quality of products, the specific treatment or the processing of products and minimum level of pesticides. SPS measures deal not only with trade issues but also address broad issues like public health and environment. Still, some of the developing countries and undeveloped countries are facing big challenges to meet SPS standards due to lack of infrastructure, awareness and technology.