HACCP - More Certification ?

The survey identified organizations that have played an important role in promoting HACCP in Thailand. Included are the Food & Drug Administration and the Department of Medical Sciences (under the Ministry of Public Health), the Department of Fisheries and the Department of Livestock Development (under the Ministry of Agriculture & Cooperatives), the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (under the Ministry of Industry) various food related institutes and associations as well as private companies.

There are many obstacles to HACCP implementation and certification, according to Dr. Suvimon Keeratipibul from the Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Science. She listed , as the main problems, the lack of a national policy on the government side; inadequate basic knowledge and insufficient resources within industry; non-standardized methodology by assessors which confuse the assessed. Moreover, the concept of certification as generally understood in Thailand is different from that of the USA which emphasizes alliances, training and performance standards, she added. The biggest hurdle according to the survey are the costs (US$1,250 to 2,500 per day for inspection and US$6,250 to 8,750 per year for consultation) which are unaffordable to most Thais.

Nevertheless, factories not yet assessed for HACCP need to be. Thailand is a member of the WTO and therefore bound by the SPS and TBT Agreements which use the CODEX Principles of Food Hygiene as the technical basis for food safety in international trade of food products. CODEX is , in turn, based on HACCP, which is a widely-accepted system for assuring food safety. To accomplish assessments for the manufacturing sector, considerable support from the government and financial resources are necessary, concluded Vitaporn Jawjit, economist from the Office of Business Consultancy,