Abstract
The definition of alcohol from the Excise Tax Act, B.E. 2560 requires that alcoholic beverages not more than 0.5% alcohol by volume are not considered alcoholic. So, the beverages containing not more than 0.5% alcohol by volume are not controlled by labelling, advertising, and other measures under the Alcohol Control Act, B.E. 2551 and other relevant laws. The objective of this study was to review the beverages containing not more than 0.5% alcohol by volume regulations in Thailand and foreign countries. Searches were conducted through government database from websites, MEDLINE (PubMed), and Google for ten years (from 2008-2017). Purposive sampling was used to select 6 countries; the United States, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Norway and Thailand. All regulations were analyzed using a content analysis approach. The study of labelling found that the US, Singapore, Australia and South Africa laws stated that the beverages containing not more than 0.5% alcohol by volume must be labelled as non-alcoholic products and the beverages containing not more than 0.05% and 0.0% alcohol by volume must be labelled “alcohol-free”. For advertising control, the US, Australia and South Africa laws stated that the non-alcoholic and alcohol-free beverages were not allowed to be advertised as alcoholic product. Besides, the US and South Africa laws indicated that the beverage advertising had to show the content and intensity of alcohol on the label. Additionally, the US has a law to ban deceptive advertising techniques and strongly control brand name and brand advertising.
