Thailand: leading science-based research on food composition and healthy recipe formulation to enhance nutrition

Thailand has successfully managed to improve nutrition among its people over time. Creating reliable data infrastructure on food and nutrition based on local diet is the foundation for the fight against malnutrition; the proven research capacity of INMU has been instrumental in this regard.

Key issues: generating scientific knowledge of nutrition and healthy diet

Understanding food composition is fundamental for assessing the nutritional status of a population and promoting a healthy diet. Data on the nutrients and non-nutrients of commonly consumed foods need to be collected, analysed, and made available in a user-friendly manner to researchers and other users, including consumers.

Solutions: strengthen the research capacity on food and nutrition and make a relevant database accessible to all users

To develop the infrastructure for food and nutrition data in Thailand, INMU has spearheaded research on food and nutrition in cooperation with domestic and international partners. As a premier institution in food and nutrition in Thailand, INMU has also updated and upgraded FCTs and the database while promoting nutrition education to the general public.

Background

In Thailand, reliable nutritional data based on local food were not available until the first FCTs were prepared in Thai in 1981, but they only covered a limited number of nutrients and food items. In addition, in 1987, according to UNICEF, WHO and World Bank (2022), stunting and underweight were observed among 24.6 percent and 20.2 percent of children aged 0–59 months, respectively.

In 1977, INMU was established within Mahidol University, a renowned public university whose medical school is the oldest higher learning institution in Thailand. The objective of INMU is to strengthen the dietary and nutrition situation of the people of Thailand. The Institute is reputably a leading institution in public health and medicine domestically and internationally, specifically with regard to its research and education capacities in food and nutrition.

Implementation

To build the foundation to improve nutrition in Thailand, INMU has taken the following measures:

(1) Promoted research with international organizations and the private sector: In 1986, INMU was designated to serve as the regional data centre and coordinator of the ASEAN Network of Food Data Systems (ASEANFOODS), which is under the INFOODS programme, a global initiative that is coordinated by FAO. The Institute is conducting many research projects with domestic and international institutions. The quality of the research is evident by the increasing number of publications in recent years, covering diverse areas of basic and applied science. In 2021 and 2022, a total of 71 and 76 papers were published, respectively, in international academic journals (INMU, 2023a).

The Institute is also promoting integrated research with the private sector through the Center of Innovation and Reference on Food for Nutrition (CIRFON). The centre’s projects cover functional food product development, commercialization of the developed product, health claim validation, process design, technology transfer, technical and advisory services towards food safety for small and medium-sized enterprises, and other food and nutrition-related research for social benefit. Some examples of research projects with the private sector carried out by INMU are as follows:

• Survey on the nutritional status of children in Thailand;
• Assessment of the efficacy and health claims of probiotics in yoghurt;
• Glycemic index and changes in blood sugar level and metabolism after the consumption of isomaltose sugar;
• Survey on food consumption behaviour, particularly on the amount of sodium obtained from seasoning of noodles at the table; and
• Glycemic index of instant noodles substituted with 50 percent whole wheat flour (INMU, 2023b).

(2) Updating and enhancing the nutrition database: In 1999, INMU published its first English-based FCTs, which covered 16 food groups, 24 nutrients and 1 050 food items, and was mainly based on food composition data analysed at INMU and other published and unpublished data, following the INFOODS guidelines.

In 2015, INMU upgraded the 1999 FCTs by covering more nutrients than the previous versions and using newly analysed data from the INMU laboratories. The data are made available online through the Thai Food Composition Database 2015. Version two of the database was released in 2018 and subsequently, the data have been regularly updated.

In addition, in the late 1990s, INMU developed the “INMUCAL-Nutrients” software to make it easier to assess and evaluate nutrient content of food menus, recipes, and meals of individuals and communities. The software was continuously upgraded up to the current version 4.0, which was released in 2018, with the addition of functions to calculate nutrient and energy intake from different kinds of food. The outputs are also available against the dietary reference intake values. As a result, INMUCAL-Nutrients is used by many research projects domestically and internationally as the fundamental tool to analyse the nutrition composition and intake of Thai food. Other related types of software also have been developed to meet specific purposes.

To boost exports, geographical indications (GI) are applied to sake. According to the National Tax Agency data, the first one was registered in 2005. After ten years, sake was formally defined under the GI system. Since then, 11 more production territories have being registered.

(3) Promoting nutrition education: Information on nutrition and healthy diet is disseminated to the general public through various public media. According to its annual report, in 2020, INMU disseminated such knowledge 505 times through proactive communication channels using various types of social media, such as Facebook, websites and Instagram, in addition to other media channels, such as radio, television, newspapers and magazines.

Additionally, a series of interactive e-books and electronic games that are available through smartphones (iOS and Android) and Windows PC were developed to motivate children of a higher elementary school age and their parents to learn about and consume safe and healthy food.

Impact

The high level of research capacity of INMU has contributed towards the creation of a reliable knowledge base and systems on nutrition in Thailand. For example, the Institute assisted the Government in developing Thai nutrition labels in 1994, and in enacting the nutrition labelling law and introducing nutrition information on food packages in 1998 (Rimpeekool et al., 2015).

Thailand had made steady progress in reducing malnutrition among children, especially in terms of wasting and underweight (Figure 1). However, in the latter half of the 2010s, progress made in improving nutrition has either slowed or reversed itself, including controlling obesity among adults. Communication strategies for consumers, therefore, need to be improved. Meanwhile, INMU has been diligently conducting research on healthy recipe development and has developed several types of software to enable a simple calculation of nutrition contents for different recipes and school lunch menus. In general, the research capacity of INMU has strengthened over the past decades and the resulting accumulated scientific evidence has become key assets of Thailand in its quest for better nutrition.Key resources

INMU (Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University). 2023a. International publications. In: INMU. Bangkok. Cited 9 May 2023. https://inmu2.mahidol. ac.th/en/publication/

INMU. 2023b. Center for Innovation and Reference on Food for Nutrition (CIRFON). In: INMU. Bangkok. Cited 9 May 2023. https://inmu2.mahidol. ac.th/en/innovation_center/

Judprasong, K., Puwastien, P., Rojroongwasinkul, N., Nitithamyong, A., Sridonpai, P., & Somjai, A. 2018. Thai Food Composition Database, Online version 2, September 2018, Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Thailand. Cited 9 May 2023. https://inmu2. mahidol.ac.th/thaifcd/home.php

Rimpeekool, W., Seubsman, S-A., Banwell, C., Kirk, M., Yiengprugsawan, V., & Sleigh, A. 2015. Food and nutrition labelling in Thailand: A long march from subsistence producers to international traders. Food Policy, 56: 59–66.

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), WHO (World Health Organization) and World Bank. 2022. Joint child malnutrition estimates database. May 2022. Cited 10 May 2023. https://data.unicef.org/ resources/dataset/malnutrition-data/