Supplement Packaging and Labeling Requirements in Thailand

Thai FDA reviews and approves a specific Thai-language label as part of every food supplement registration, and the registration certificate that results is tied to that exact label. Once approved, the label is not something a brand can quietly tweak. Any change to the product name, ingredient list, nutrition information, or usage instructions requires a formal label variation application and fresh Thai FDA approval before the changed version can appear on product shipped into Thailand. Product arriving with a label that diverges from the approved version gets held at the border, no exceptions for minor wording changes.

Two notifications, one label

Supplement labeling in Thailand sits under two notifications that both have to be satisfied at once: the Notification of the Ministry of Public Health on Food Labeling (No. 367, B.E. 2557, as amended), which sets the general format and content requirements for all food products, and the supplement-specific requirements inside the Notification on Food Supplements (No. 293), which layers on fields specific to supplements. A label that fully satisfies one but not the other is still a non-compliant label.

The mandatory fields, and where each one trips people up

• Product name in Thai. The Thai product name has to match, exactly, what's registered with Thai FDA. An English brand name may also appear, but the Thai version is mandatory, and if the brand is a globally registered English-language trademark, its Thai rendering still needs to be registered and used consistently across all Thai packaging.
• Ingredient list in Thai. Every ingredient, actives, excipients, food additives (with Thai names or INS numbers), and allergens, has to be listed in Thai in descending order by weight at manufacture. Ingredient names need to use Thai FDA's designated Thai terminology where it exists; a translation choice that departs from Thai FDA's preferred term creates a deficiency that delays registration, not just a stylistic quibble.
• Net weight or net count. Stated in Thai, as net weight for powders and solids, net count for tablets, capsules, sachets, or units, or net volume for liquids. Both the figure and the unit have to appear in the required format, and numeral size has to meet the labeling notification's minimum size rule.
• Manufacturer or importer name and address. For imports, this is the Thai importer's registered business address, with the manufacturer's country of origin also stated. It has to be the licensed food importer's actual registered address, not a marketing address.
• Registration number. The Thai FDA food registration number, the "อย." number, has to appear on the label. Products missing this number, or carrying a fraudulent one, are treated as unregistered products subject to seizure, a risk covered in detail in our look at the VTEAY enforcement case.
• Nutritional information panel. For vitamin and mineral products, the panel needs quantity per serving and per recommended daily intake, expressed as a percentage of the Thai Recommended Daily Intake as defined in Thai FDA's own RDI notification. Thai RDI values are not always identical to US or EU reference values, so the Thai figures, not imported ones, have to appear on Thai packaging.
• Expiry date and batch number. Both have to be printed on the packaging at time of manufacture, in the international format or the Thai format the labeling notification specifies. A sticker applied after manufacture is not an acceptable substitute for either field.
• Storage and usage instructions. Storage conditions, dosage instructions, and any required precautions (not for use by pregnant women, do not exceed recommended dose, and similar) have to appear in Thai, using language aligned with Thai FDA's approved precautionary statements for the product category, and that exact wording has to have been part of the label approved at registration.

Container materials and the packaging itself

The container has to be a permitted food contact material under Thai FDA's standards. HDPE, PET, PP, and glass are all recognized as acceptable, and the packaging cannot impart any substance capable of affecting product safety or quality, something the packaging supplier's food contact material compliance documentation has to demonstrate. Child-resistant packaging is not a blanket requirement for supplements in Thailand, but certain products, iron-containing supplements above a specified dose, or products with ingredients subject to safety quantity limits, may be required to use child-resistant closures as a condition of registration. Gummy or chewable formats positioned for children need packaging that clearly distinguishes the product from confectionery.

Packaging incorporating recycled plastic content has to confirm that recycled material meets applicable Thai FDA food contact material standards and is genuinely food-grade. This area is still developing: Thai FDA has been updating its food contact material standards generally, and requirements around recycled content packaging are likely to become more explicit in the coming years, worth tracking if a brand is planning a sustainability-driven packaging shift for the Thai market.

Managing label changes without triggering a new filing

Not every packaging update requires going back to Thai FDA for approval, but knowing which changes do and which don't is product-specific and needs assessing before committing to a production run of revised packaging. A label that reads as complete under an international review can still fall short of Thai FDA's specific requirements on field placement, text size, and required content, gaps that only show up when someone checks against the Thai notification directly rather than against general international labeling practice. DeeMED Consulting prepares and reviews Thai supplement labels as part of the registration process and advises on which post-registration changes need a variation filing. Our supplement labeling and health claims work is where this review happens before a label goes to print, not after a shipment gets held.

Bilingual labels and where translation choices cause deficiencies

Most imported supplements arrive in Thailand carrying a bilingual label, the original English (or other source-market language) content alongside the mandatory Thai fields, rather than a Thai-only design. Thai FDA's format rules do not require removing the original language content, but they do require that the Thai text be the version registered and approved, and that it be at least as prominent as the original-language text on the same panel, not relegated to smaller print or a secondary panel. A common design mistake is treating the Thai label as an afterthought sticker applied to an otherwise-finished international package design; Thai FDA's format and size requirements apply to the Thai text specifically, and a Thai translation squeezed into leftover space on an international label layout frequently fails to meet the minimum text size rule even when the wording itself is accurate.

Translation quality itself is a separate failure point from formatting. A technically accurate Thai translation that uses a different term than Thai FDA's designated vocabulary for a given ingredient or nutrient, even if the meaning is equivalent, creates a deficiency during registration review, because the reviewer is checking the submitted Thai text against the department's own approved terminology list, not evaluating translation quality generally. Brands working with a general translation agency rather than one with specific Thai FDA labeling experience run into this repeatedly, since a linguistically correct translation and a regulatorily compliant one are not automatically the same thing. Using a translator who has prepared Thai FDA supplement labels before, and cross-checking ingredient and nutrient terminology against Thai FDA's own published nomenclature before submission, avoids a round of deficiency correspondence that a first-time Thai filer would otherwise absorb as a routine part of the process.