Surasak agreed that a raft of other measures needs to be more widely implemented, including targeted public messaging, working with local authorities to help street food sellers reformulate their recipes and simple measures such as salt meters that can help cooks easily tell if their food contains too much sodium.
Thailand’s public health ministry and partners had already adopted a five-pronged strategy to reduce salt intake from 2016, including awareness campaigns.
Key elements included monitoring sodium consumption, increasing community knowledge, and promoting healthier diets.
“Public education alone is not really effective. Even educated people now, they eat more salt than poor people, because they enjoy life, they go partying, they eat out and they eat more,” Surasak said.
He said that Mahidol University’s projections of the positive impacts of the tax were significant.
They include 155,000 fewer cases of stroke, kidney disease and heart disease over a 10-year period. Deaths prevented are estimated to exceed 10,000, and the national healthcare savings could reach 3.1 billion baht.
Regular Thais eating chicken noodles told CNA that they worry about the consequences of price increases of their favourite dishes.
“If you notice, the price of noodles has increased over time – by 10, 15, even 20 baht – yet people continue to eat them,” Kongkiat said.
“I think we should focus on shaping eating behaviour, perhaps through education, promotion, or informing people about the consequences of consuming certain foods too frequently. That would be more effective.”
Business is already tough for Pirada the Bangkok noodle shop owner. She wants the government to keep sellers like her in mind before making changes that could hurt their earnings or customer base.
“Other vendors in the market also say sales have dropped and costs have gone up,” she said. “Please don’t raise prices yet.”
Additional reporting by Jarupat Karunyaprasit.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-sodium-tax-food-health-5957671
