he Food Act classifies foods into three main categories as follows:
(1) Specially Controlled Foods – Registrations are required for foods in this category. Legal provisions are related to food standard quality, specifications, packaging, and labeling requirements, as well as other aspects of good manufacturing practices. The Food Committee may make recommendations to the Minister of Public Health specifying specially controlled foods.
(2) Standardized Foods – Standard foods do not require registration but their quality and labeling have to meet the standard requirements as specified in the Notification of the Ministry of Public Health.
(3) Other Foods – Foods, raw or cooked, preserved or non-preserved, processed or non-processed, if not listed under category 1 or 2 (see the list in the annex) will be considered as general foods. Although registrations are not required, general food products are controlled and monitored with regard to hygiene, safety, labeling and advertisement. Foods in this category may be subdivided into (a) foods that must bear standard labels and (b) other general foods.
The control measures for each category of foods differ; specially controlled foods are strictly controlled. Before producing or importing such foods, the application for product registration is required. For standard foods, the application for such permission is not required, but they must be produced up to the prescribed quality or standard. For labeled foods, however, the main objective is to control the labeling in order to do away with misleading or cheating of consumers; thus, there will be fewer problems of quality standard, compared with foods in other categories.
For food control efforts in Thailand , assigned personnel of the Food Control Division, the Food and Drug Ports Division and Provincial Public Health Offices are the competent officers who function under the Food Act.