A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LEGAL MEASURES ON MEAT SAFETY IN THAILAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND SINGAPORE
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Abstract
Meat safety control in Thailand has been faced with complexities in regards to producer’s capacity and limitations, consumer’s demand and food culture, and requirements by international food regulations. In an attempt to seek for appropriate measures to cope with such complexities, a problem-based comparative analysis was conducted on legal measures on meat safety of three countries; namely, Thailand, the United States, and Singapore. Implications for improvements of Thai laws and regulations were derived respectively, focusing on domestic supply chain of raw meat, from primary production to slaughter.
Overall, the legal measures for meat safety of the U.S. and Singapore share the similar structure in that both countries regulate comprehensive as well as specific laws addressing the meat safety control. Moreover, they are based on the same concept that adulterated meat shall be strictly prevented from entering to the human consumption chain, and thus a holistic approach is essential throughout the meat supply chain. In details, however, the two countries place different emphases on legal measures in the aspects of allocation of authority, scope of laws, and the cooperation among concerned agencies. As for Thailand, remarkable efforts in advancing laws and regulations on meat safety have been noted in recent years. Nonetheless, there remains some room for improvements, particularly with regards to quality control for general domestic consumers. Foremost is the problem of the legal structure itself, in that laws governing meat safety are fragmented as several specific laws have been enacted, resulting in problematic implementations of regulations along the meat supply chain. On details, problems of the existing provisions were identified. In accordance with the findings, enhancement of provisions under the existing laws governing primary production and slaughter was proposed so that to handle problematic issues at hand. For the benefit in the long run, re-structuring of the meat safety laws governing the entire meat supply chain was also proposed under appropriate circumstances.
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