LEGAL MEASURES ON SANITARY FOOD TRANSPORTATION

Abstract

At present, Thailand has not yet regulated specific law respecting the issue on food transportation sanitation control. Although we have ministerial regulations to control the standard of some food products, and preventive measures for food quality control, there is none of regulations specifies the general rules of sanitary food transportation, liabilities of persons engaged in food transportation, and also other rules that the food transport business should follow, e.g. the temperature control, the hygiene control, and the control of vehicles used in food transportation.

Due to the fact that food is one of the four significant factors of life, it is greatly important that the food is safe when we consume. Many fresh foods are deemed perishable foods or foods that easily spoiled when being kept in improper manner. Therefore, food safety control is necessary, and transportation is one step of the food chain that takes an important role since the food comes out from the slaughterhouse, to the manufacturers, then comes to the distributors, to the markets, or to the restaurants, and finally on our plates. The consumers will never know whether the food they eat is safe along the way, the regulations for controlling the transportation of food is necessary therefor.

In this article, the author presents and compares the regulations of United States, United Kingdom, and Australia concerning sanitation control during food transport in order to apply with the problems in Thailand. The author wishes that this article will be useful for the government to adapt the foreign regulations with the problems in Thailand, which will benefit the consumers’ health and protection, and will decrease the problems of food spoilage.