Thailand supplement advertising approval is a separate permit from product registration. In Thailand, approval to sell a supplement does not carry the right to advertise it. Promotion is a second, separate clearance. Before a claim runs on television, in print, or on a social feed, the advertisement itself must be approved by Thai FDA. A fully registered product can still be advertised illegally, and the brand, not the agency, answers for it.
Under Section 41 of the Food Act B.E. 2522 (1979), anyone who advertises the qualities, benefits, or indications of a food for commercial purposes must submit the advertisement to Thai FDA and may publish it only after permission is granted. Approval is issued as a Kho Or (ฆอ.) permit, in the format ฆอ. XX/25XX, and the permit number must appear in the advertisement itself. A permit is valid for up to 5 years.
The wording, images, and footage are reviewed before they run. This is a permission, not a filing made after the fact.
What an advertisement may claim is bounded by the scientific basis accepted at product registration. The ad cannot say more than the dossier supports.
The issued ฆอ. number must be displayed in the advertising material, which is how compliance is checked in the market.
It is requested separately from product registration and through the Thai FDA e-submission system. A registered product is not an approved advertisement.
Any commercial communication that represents a supplement's qualities or benefits falls within scope, regardless of the channel. Thai FDA has extended the rules expressly to social media, and enforcement attention has moved with the market toward online and influencer promotion.
Television, radio, newspapers, and other printed matter.
Websites, Facebook, Instagram, e-commerce listings, and paid or sponsored posts.
Product recommendations and endorsement content created for commercial purposes are treated as advertising.
Running an advertisement without permission is itself an offense, carrying a fine of up to 5,000 baht under Section 71. That figure understates the risk. The larger exposure is the claim. Section 40 prohibits false or exaggerated advertising of a food's quality, benefit, or indication, and a breach there carries imprisonment of up to 3 years, a fine of up to 30,000 baht, or both, under Section 70. Thai FDA can also order an advertisement stopped or corrected. A disease, weight-loss, or cure claim that would never be approved is exactly the kind of message that draws enforcement, and the penalty attaches to the brand that authorized it.
We treat advertising approval as part of the launch, not an afterthought once the campaign is already booked. The claims a brand intends to run are reviewed against what Thai FDA will permit before the creative is produced, so the message and the permit are built together.
We prepare and manage the Kho Or submission, align the advertising claims with the evidence accepted at registration, and tell a client plainly when a planned message will not clear, while it still costs nothing to change it.
The point is a campaign that can run without being pulled. A claim approved on the label and cleared for advertising is a claim a brand can stand behind in the Thai market.