Thailand launches healthier choice logo to reduce NCDs

August 31th, 2016

On 31 August 2016 the Minister of Public Health of Thailand has given the official kick-off for a front-of-pack logo programme that identifies healthier food options per food category. Choices International welcomes this initiative as an important element of the public health actions in Thailand.

Overweight, obesity and related non-communicable diseases as well as a rapid increase in the number of elderly cause growing nutritional problems in Thailand that have affected at least 30% of the population. This can cause huge financial burdens for the country’s health care system.

In 2014 the National Food Committee of Thailand therefore advised to implement a front-of-pack label. The Healthier Choices Nutrition Symbol was then developed with the agreement of food companies, academics and the public sector.

The logo is owned by the Thai Food & Drug Administration, which assigned the Nutrition Promotion Foundation of the Mahidol University, to manage the symbol’s use.

Intended to cover all food products, the logo now can be applied to ready-to-eat meals, beverages, dairy products, sauces, instant noodles and snacks. Other food groups will follow. From the start already 56 products are certified and 15 food companies have joined the programme.

Thailand participates in a regional forum consisting of representatives from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, and China, as well as experts from the Choices International Foundation, in order to create more coherence in the national criteria within the ASEAN region.

Choices International cordially welcomes this logo initiative with which it closely cooperates and that might represent an example for more countries in the ASEAN region.