Developing a Manual on Consumer Protection for Health Products (Food and Cosmetics) for Local Government Officials

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to prepare of consumer protection manual for health products (Food and cosmetics) for local government officials to have guidelines for consumer protection for health products in the same way. It conducted qualitative research between October 2018 and March 2019 by conducting research in 4 steps, which are 1) collecting data and reviewing the operation of consumer protection for health products of Local Government Officials. 2) Meeting of relevant Food and Drug Administration officers to define content and format.Then, arranging focus group meetings of stakeholders, including representatives of Bangkok administration, Pattaya city, city municipality, municipality, sub-district municipality, and provincial public health office, totaling 36 people to content analyze and draft a manual. 3)Create a manual by collecting and arranging information into a system. 4) To produce a complete manual and electronic book for Local Government. This manual is used in the workshop for the Decentralization to Local Governments mission promotion project of the Food and Drug Administration.

The results revealed that the consumer protection operations manual for health products (food and cosmetics) for Local Government Officials contains six chapters, including;
1) Fundamentals of consumer protection operations for health products. 2) Understanding of the legality of consumer protection operations for health products. 3) Necessary fundamentals for consumer protection operations. 4) Using a simple test kit. 5) Guidelines for consumer protection operations on health products, and 6) Law enforcement practices for officers.