Product Compliance

On 19 August, Thailand published new rules for using methanol as a food processing aid: a chemical that is not supposed to remain in the finished product, which is exactly why most label-compliance checks never look for it

On 19 August 2026, Thailand's Ministry of Public Health gazetted Notification No. 472 B.E. 2569, effective the next day, adding criteria, conditions and procedures for using methanol as a food processing aid, tied to a safety assessment for the specific food and use. Processing aids like extraction solvents do not have to appear on the finished label, which means a product can be fully label-compliant while its manufacturing process was never checked against a rule Thailand has enforced in some form since 2002.

Naomie HaliouaCDO and co-founder 1 September 2026 · 5 min read

A chemical the finished product is never meant to contain

Thailand's food law works through a base notification that lays out the general criteria for using substances in food, plus a series of amendments that add or adjust specific rules underneath it. The base notification, No. 390 B.E. 2561, was issued in 2018 under the Food Act B.E. 2522 (1979) and covers substances used in food produced for sale, imported for sale, or already on sale in Thailand. Notification No. 472 B.E. 2569, gazetted 19 August 2026, is the second amendment to that framework. Its substantive addition governs processing aids, a category distinct from food additives or ingredients: substances used somewhere in manufacturing, most often as an extraction solvent, that are not intended to have a technological function in the finished food and are removed, evaporated or reduced during processing. Methanol is the specific case the amendment addresses. Thailand has controlled it in this role since Notification No. 259 B.E. 2545 in 2002; the new rule sets out the criteria, conditions and procedures under which a manufacturer can use it, tied to a safety assessment for the specific food and use in question, not a general licence to use the solvent however a process requires.

Three details behind 19 August

1 day to take effect

Notification 472 was published in the Royal Gazette on 19 August 2026 and took effect the next day, 20 August, giving manufacturers no transition window.

Second amendment since 2018

It is Amendment No. 2 to Notification 390 B.E. 2561, the base rule on using substances in food made or imported for sale in Thailand.

Methanol control dates to 2002

Thailand first restricted methanol as a food processing aid under Notification 259 B.E. 2545; the new text updates, rather than introduces, that control.

1979

Thailand's Food Act B.E. 2522 comes into force, the primary legislation under which the Ministry of Public Health issues notifications controlling substances used in food.

2002

Notification No. 259 B.E. 2545 first restricts the use of methyl alcohol (methanol) as a processing aid in specified foods.

2018

Notification No. 390 B.E. 2561 sets the general criteria, conditions and procedures for using substances in food produced, imported or sold in Thailand, the framework Notification 472 amends.

19 Aug 2026

Notification No. 472 B.E. 2569, Amendment No. 2, is published in the Royal Gazette, adding specific criteria for methanol as a processing aid.

20 Aug 2026

The notification takes effect, with no separate transition period called out for manufacturers already using methanol in processing.

The real subject: a compliance category that hides upstream of the label

Most food-compliance review, inside a brand and inside a regulator, works from the finished product backward: what's declared on the label, what's detectable in the food, what the ingredient list says. A processing aid is built to fail that test on purpose. Methanol used to extract a botanical flavour or a plant compound is not an ingredient of the finished food in the ordinary sense; under Thai rules, as under most food laws worldwide, a true processing aid does not have to appear in the ingredient declaration at all, precisely because it is not supposed to remain functional in the product a consumer buys. That is what makes Notification 472 worth reading closely rather than filing as a routine additive update. It does not regulate what ends up in the food. It regulates what a manufacturer is allowed to put into the process before the food exists in its final form, and requires that use to rest on a safety assessment specific to that food and that use, before the batch is ever made. A brand that only checks finished-product test results and label declarations against Thai rules can be fully compliant on paper for a product whose manufacturing process never had, and never verified it needed, the underlying processing-aid authorisation this notification now spells out.

Why it matters for brands

The direct exposure sits with flavour houses, botanical and plant-extract producers, and food or beverage ingredient manufacturers that supply or sell into Thailand, since methanol is a common extraction solvent in that industry. For them, Notification 472 means the safety-assessment file needs to exist at the processing-aid level, tied to the specific food and use, and be retrievable on demand, not inferred from the fact that finished-product testing came back clean. For downstream brands, retailers and importers who buy formulated ingredients rather than run the extraction themselves, the risk is less visible but not smaller: a supplier's processing method is typically the one part of a product's compliance file that never appears on a spec sheet, a certificate of analysis, or a label, which means it is also the part most product-compliance workflows are not built to ask a supplier about. Since this addition entered into force the day after it was gazetted, any manufacturer or ingredient supplier already using methanol as a processing aid in a food destined for the Thai market is already operating under the new criteria, whether or not its own paperwork has caught up.

Two ways to read 19 August

The narrow read

Thailand updated one of its food additive notifications to add rules for methanol as a processing aid.

The structural read

Thailand now requires a food-and-use-specific safety file for a chemical that, by design, never has to show up on the label, the certificate of analysis, or the finished-product test, which means a compliant label can sit on top of a manufacturing process that was never checked against this rule at all.

Sources & references

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114: Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)

Frequently asked questions

What does Thailand's Notification No. 472 B.E. 2569 change?

Notification No. 472 B.E. 2569, published in Thailand's Royal Gazette on 19 August 2026 and effective 20 August 2026, is the second amendment to Notification 390 B.E. 2561, the base rule governing how substances may be used in food manufactured for sale or imported for sale in Thailand. Its main addition sets out criteria, conditions and procedures for using methyl alcohol (methanol) as a food processing aid, requiring the specific food and use to have passed a safety assessment before that use is permitted.

Does this mean methanol is now freely allowed in Thai food production?

No. Thailand has restricted methanol as a food processing aid since Notification No. 259 B.E. 2545 in 2002, and the new notification does not remove that restriction. It sets specific criteria, conditions and procedures for using methanol as a processing aid, conditional on a safety assessment for the particular food and use, rather than granting general permission to use it however a manufacturing process requires.

Why do food processing aids matter for compliance if they don't appear in the finished product?

A processing aid, such as an extraction solvent used to draw out a flavour or botanical compound, is typically not required to appear on a food's ingredient declaration because it is not meant to have a technological function in the finished product. That means standard compliance checks built around label review and finished-product testing can find a product fully compliant even when the manufacturing process behind it was never verified against a processing-aid rule like Notification 472, since the evidence needed sits in supplier and process documentation rather than on the pack.