New food authority for Thailand

A food body for regulatory issues might soon be in place in Thailand with the proposal this week of the creation of a single food authority. The agency, likely to be called the Food Authority of Thailand, will be a one-stop service handling all issues related to the industry including helping food processors in dealings with the government, the Bangkok Post reported on Monday. Three bodies - one handling negotiations, the second overseeing inspection and certification, and the third a regulatory authority - will be appointed under a new National Food Board. The existing National Food Institute will become the secretariat to the board in a transitional period before the new authority is legally established, according to Sompol Kiatphaibool, an adviser to the finance minister and chairman of the committee tackling problems in the food industry. The single agency was needed because the current system was confusing food producers, who had to seek approval of their production standards from a number of different sources, he said. Under the current system for standard certification, an exporter of fishery products must seek approval from the Fisheries Department, a chicken exporter must go to the Livestock Development Department and traders of other food must visit the Medical Sciences Department or the Food and Drug Administration. The new negotiating body will be responsible for negotiations on all technical issues about food standards. This body is required to prepare technical information such as risk analyses for negotiation with other countries, especially those wanting to apply sanitary and phytosanitary regulations as non-tariff trade barriers. Sompol said the new plan would be proposed to the ministers of public health, agriculture, industry, commerce and science and technology. If they agreed, the government could go ahead with the first step of appointing a national food board, chaired by a deputy prime minister, within two months. The second step of reviewing and amending laws to match the new structure could be done simultaneously. However, the third step to legislate for the establishment of the authority was likely to take time because the details would first be under consideration by Parliament. Sompol said that whether the authority would be overseen by the Prime Minister's Office or be established as an independent public body was still being debated. In the latter case, it would be free to make its own income from providing services to the private sector. Poonkiat Tungsombat, president of the Thai Food Processors' Association, said that creating a single food authority would help the food industry because companies could obtain all information from one point. Unless this course is followed, the newspaper claims that the Thai food industry will be unable to cope with the new regulations of the European Union, which require standardised inspections all along the production process from farm to table. Poonkiat said other countries, such as Australia and the United States, who already had a single agency responsible for all aspects of the food industry would welcome the convenience of working with a similar counterpart in Thailand.