Thailand regulations
General requirements for import
Food Act B.E. 2522: Provides the government and officials with the authority to control imports of food products for sale. In addition, the Act provides food businesses in Thailand with criteria and penalties about using food product imports. Furthermore, the Act prescribes the processes to obtain approval before importing foods for distribution.
The aim of this Act is to guarantee the quality and safety of food: controlling the imports of food products, providing safe sampling and quality assessments, and taking legal actions when necessary.
Notification of the Ministry of Public Health No 193 “Production processes, production equipment, and foods storages”: Provides guidance about measures prescribed for food standards and consumer protection for food safety. In addition, it provides guidance about good manufacturing practices related to food hygiene and all other requirements for importers.
Customs Act B.E. 2469: Provides guidance on the customs registration for exporters of food. In the schedules section, there are available copies of all the necessary certificates that foreign companies need to export their products into the country. The Act can be found at the following link:
http://thailaws.com/law/t_laws/tlaw0421.pdf
Additives, contaminants, antimicrobials and residues
Notification of the Ministry of Public Health No 281 “Food Additives”: The purpose of this Notification is to regulate food additives. It provides guidance about the standards, conditions and the analytical procedures for additives. It establishes the conditions and instances where certain food additives are permitted and notes the maximum levels of certain food additives that exceed the acceptable daily intake (ADI).
Global Agricultural Information Network Report (FDA) “Food Additives - Colouring Permitted in Thailand”: Provides the list of additives permitted to be added to food sold in Thailand, their standards and their maximum limits.
Specific information can be found at the following link:
Notification of the Ministry of Public Health No 98 “Prescribing standards of contaminated substances”: Provides guidance about the contaminants and residues permitted, their standards and maximum limits.
The Notification can be found at the following link:
Microbiological and organic criteria
Notification of the Ministry of Public Health No 364 “Standards for pathogenic microorganisms in food”: Provides microbiological criteria for food.
The Notification can be found at the following link:
Labelling and packaging
Notification of the Ministry of Public Health No 367 “Labelling of pre-packaged foods”: Provides guidance about the necessary standards for the labelling of pre-packaged foods. It also outlines information regarding mandatory warnings and advisory statements that must be displayed on the label.
The Notification can be found at the following link:
Notification of the Ministry of Public Health No 295 “Qualities or standard for container made from plastic”: Provides specific standards and requirements for plastic containers.
Notification of the Ministry of Public Health No 92 “Prescription of quality or standard for food containers, use of food containers and prohibition of use of things as food containers”: Provides guidance about the necessary standards for packaging materials.
Traceability
Royal Ordinance on Fisheries B.E.2558: Aims to reorganize fisheries in Thailand with a view to prevent Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in order to preserve aquatic animal resources as a sustainable source of food for humanity and preserve the environment. In addition, it aims to prevent all forms of forced labour in the fisheries sector. The Ordinance outlines these criteria and standards with the goal for them to be recognized internationally.
How do you find the most recent consolidated version of the regulations?
You can find the most recent consolidated version of the legal text at the below link.Please note that it is not an official website of the Minister of Health but is a website where the Thai Ministry of Justice collects information related to all the relevant laws.
In order to find the legal text that you are looking for, please visit the link below. You can insert the name of the law/act/regulation/notification/ordinance under the box “Search”:
Last update: 3/04/2020
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