. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/THA/356 
15 November 2010  
 (10-6090) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  THAILAND
  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  The Office of Food and Drug Administration (Thai FDA) 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:     
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Probiotic as Food 
Component 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft Notification of 
MOPH entitled, "Application of Probiotic as Food Component" (4 pages, in Thai). 
6. Description of content:  This draft regulation proposes to establish criteria for the use of 
probiotic as food component as follows:  
– No. 1:  Probiotic is not included in the list  of prohibited microorganism, bacteria or 
yeast in food of the MOPH.Notifica tions as appeared in Annex 1; 
– No. 2:  "Probiotic" means the living mi croorganisms when administered in a 
sufficient quantity, will have beneficial effect on the host organism, exempting biotherapeutic agents, beneficial microorg anism that not being used in food and 
genetically modified microorganism; 
 "Health Claim" means st atement or other informa tion related to food, food 
 component or nutritions that are associat ed directly and indirectly with health; 
– No. 3:  Application of probiotic as food component shall be permitted by Thai Food 
and Drug Administration: 
  3.1 Probiotic as food component shall be  as listed in Annex II.  Other than  
  that  shall be subject to the demons tration of evidence of safe use and  
  probiotic properties following the crit eria issued by Thai Food and Drug  
  A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ;    3.2 Food contains probiotic shall rema in viable probiotic not less than  
  1,000,000 colonies per gram of food du ring the period of storage and use; 
– No. 4:  Probiotic health claim shall be fo llowed the criteria issued by Thai Food and 
Drug Administration; 
– No. 5:  Food containing probiotic shal l be labelled in accordance with: G/TBT/N/THA/356 
Page 2  
 
    (1) the Notifications of the Ministry of Public Health, Re:  Label 
  (2) the MOPH Notification of such food; 
  Wherever health claim is referred, the following details shall be labelled: 
  – Genus, Specie s and Strain of probiotic added; 
  – quantity and recommended duration for the benefit to the consumers as  
  claim; 
  – statement of health claim;   – direction of usage and storage condition;   – contact address, telephone nu mber or website for consumers; 
– No. 6: Packaging for food containing probiot ic shall follow the Notification of the  
Ministry of Public Health, Re: Packaging; 
– No.7:  This Notification shall be enforced  after the date of its publication in the 
Government Gazette. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Food safety and Human health  
8. Relevant documents:   Notification of MOPH No. 153 B.E. 2537 (1994) 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    October 2010 
On the date after published in the Government Gazette 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days after notification to WTO Members 
11. Text available from: National enquiry point [X], or address, telephone and fax numbers, 
e-mail and website addresses, if available of the other body:  
National Bureau of Agricultural Co mmodity and Food Standards (ACFS) 
Division of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards Policy 
50 Phaholyothin Road, Ladyao, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900 
Thailand Tel.:  (+662) 561 4204 Fax:  (+662) 561 4034, 561 4088 Website:  http://www.acfs.go.th
 
E-mail:  sps@acfs.go.th ;  spsthailand@gmail.com  
And can be downloaded at: 
http://members.wto.org/crnattach ments/2010/tbt/THA/10_4283_00_e.pdf