Thailand moves to cut sugar in popular drinks amid health drive | Thailand

A crowd of customers, holding phones aloft, watch intently as Auntie Nid mixes up her bestseller: an iced Thai tea.

Condensed milk is poured into a glass, followed by three heaped tablespoons of sugar, and then freshly strained tea. The end product – a deep orange, creamy treat – is poured into a plastic bag filled with ice.

“I want to spoil my customers,” says Auntie Nid, 68, who prefers to be known by her nickname.

The Thai government, however, is trying to reduce the amount of sugar added to the country’s most popular drinks.

This month, nine of the country’s major coffee chains committed to halving the amount of sugar that is considered “normal sweetness” in some of their drinks as part of a new campaign to reset people’s taste buds and improve public health.

Thai people consume an average of 21 teaspoons of sugar a day – far more than the World Health Organization’s recommended daily limit of six teaspoons.

Sugary drinks are a major culprit, with Thailand historically being one of Asia’s biggest consumers of calories from sweetened drinks.

Thailand has taken other steps to tackle sugar, including a sugar tax, which was introduced gradually from 2017, with the last phase rolled out last year. This targets pre-packaged sugary drinks.

The tax has helped, said Pojjana Hunchangsith, assistant professor at Mahidol University. “One of the biggest impacts has been product reformulation, with many manufacturers lowering sugar levels to avoid higher tax rate,” she said.

However, the tax does not affect street vendors or cafes, where menus are packed with a dazzling array of sweet options – from boba milk teas and iced cocoa, to lemon tea and pink milk, a Thai drink made from sala syrup. “They are very important sources of sugar intake in Thailand,” Pojjana added, but freshly made drinks are far more difficult to regulate.

The latest government initiative will include some of the country’s biggest cafe chains. Many shops already display cards offering customers different levels of sweetness: 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. Under the new campaign, for certain drinks, 100% sweetness will be half as sugary as it once was.

Ann Thumthong, 55, a taxi driver in Bangkok, welcomes the measures, saying it is difficult to avoid sweet things when buying food and drinks.

It is possible to retrain your sweetness preferences so you need less sugar, Thumthong said, adding that she has become more health conscious with age. “For me, in the past, when I finished the meal I went straight for the desert, but now I opt for fruits instead,” she said.

Phumsith Mahasuweerachai, associate professor at the faculty of economics in Khon Kaen University, said it was possible to encourage customers to make better choices even with simple adjustments. He conducted a study, which found that simply giving customers the option to choose how sweet their drinks would be prompted them to opt for less sugary drinks. Providing calorie information did not significantly change their choices, he added.

“If we don’t nudge [customers] or prompt them, it’s difficult for them to make the change,” he said. “They go to the coffee shop and it’s automatic.”

At Auntie Nid’s shop, customer Phakamas, 39, has just bought an iced cocoa on her lunch break, a relief in the Bangkok heat.

“I think consuming sugar is OK, I don’t consume it very frequently – I might consume a cup or two during the week,” she says.

Auntie Nid, whose shop has served teas and coffees in Bangkok’s old town for 30 years, can’t comprehend changing her recipe.

“No, no, no,” she says, as a queue of tourists, as well as some locals workers and students stretches out the door. The shop has always been popular, she says, but has become especially famous among foreign visitors thanks to social media.

“The reasons why these drinks are popular is because of their strong, intense taste,” she says. “Without sugar, the coffee and tea will be bland and bitter.”