That said, the sale of orange or any other kind of juice from street vendors will be considered illegal only when the products do not contain contents as stated in the label. If that is the case, then they can subsequently be branded as fake.
For large- or factory-scale manufacturing, consumers have Good Manufacturing Practice or GMP as a system to ensure that products they buy are consistently producted and controlled according to quality standards. But for small-scale production, Patchara said that in Thailand, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has enforced another quality-control protocol called Primary GMP, which is quite similar to factory-scake GMP but less serious in practice. Both forms of GMP look to ensure that six manufacturing aspects-production buildings, equipment, production process, sanitation, maintenance and production staff- are up to hygiene and safety standards.
The coordinator of the Foundation for Consumers added that juice drinks that are manufactured in factories or by large-scale industry are already required by law to be properly labelled and seek the FDA certification. But the problem here is juice that is made and sold by small-scale vendors, which is not licensed. These products, even though sold on the street, are subject to control by the Primary GMP standard, but Patchara is not certain how strictly the FDA has implemented the quality-assurance approach.
"Manufacturers might take advantage of this legal loophole," he added. "They might produce juice drinks that are not properly labelled and supply them to vendors. Vendors might claim these are their own products [which will then be loosely controlled becaused they are small-scale production] but in fact they receive them from big producers.
"Regardless, whoever does not do it right damages the image of Thailand's street foods and products."
Speaking of adverse health impacts from fake fruit juice, Pornrat does not want consumers to be overly alarmed. He said fake fruit juice is less likely to cause short-term health consequences given the citric acid content of fruit juices is able to lessen the proliferation of germ to a certain extent. Long-term impacts, nonetheless, are likely to stem from the fruit that might be loaded with pesticides or colouring additives that might carry toxic heavy metals and water that might be of poor quality.