Reading sugar on a drink label

On a Thai drink label, the sugar figure to read first is the one for the whole pack, in grams. The nutrition panel shows sugar per serving, and many bottles hold more than one serving, so the two numbers can differ a lot. Check how many servings the pack says it contains, then compare the grams with the guideline you want to use.

Per serving or per pack

Thailand has two ways of showing nutrition on a drink, and they use different bases.

The nutrition information panel follows Ministry of Public Health notification No. 445 (2023). It gives the amount per serving and states how many servings the container holds. The notification describes a serving as the amount an average Thai person typically finishes at one time, or the amount the maker recommends. For drinks in its reference table, such as fruit and vegetable drinks, other soft drinks and ready-to-drink tea and coffee, the reference serving is 200 millilitres. A maker may choose a different serving size, but it has to be comparable with the reference. The sugar line on this panel is called "total sugars", and the standard format gives it in grams.

The GDA label is the one on the front of the pack. GDA stands for Guideline Daily Amounts. Notification No. 394 (2018) lists the ready-to-drink drinks that must carry it, with some exceptions for small labels and returnable glass bottles. They include fruit, vegetable and plant drinks in sealed containers, other flavoured ready-to-drink drinks, dried versions of these, and ready-made tea and coffee. The latest format is set by notification No. 466 (2025). It is four joined cylinders for energy, sugar, fat and sodium. The figures shown are for the whole package, worked out as the amount per serving multiplied by the number of servings in the pack. When one pack holds more than one serving, the label also says it should be divided into a stated number of times.

Each cylinder also shows a percentage. The Thai reference amounts behind those percentages are 2,000 kilocalories for energy, 65 grams for sugar, 65 grams for fat and 2,000 milligrams for sodium. A footnote on the label calls the percentage a share of the maximum daily intake.

As an example only, a pack showing 20 grams of sugar would be about 31% of the Thai reference of 65 grams.

The WHO guideline on free sugars

The World Health Organization (WHO) uses a different measure called free sugars. It defines these as sugars added to food and drinks by the maker, a cook or the consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. The WHO guideline says free sugars should be less than 10% of total energy intake. For a person eating about 2,000 kilocalories a day, WHO says that is about 50 grams, or about 12 level teaspoons. WHO adds that going below 5%, roughly 25 grams or 6 teaspoons, would give additional benefits. The guideline does not apply to the sugars in fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and milk.

WHO gives one drink example. A single can of sugar-sweetened soda contains about 40 grams of free sugars.

The two systems do not use the same number. The Thai label compares sugar with a 65 gram reference, and the WHO guideline works from a share of energy. The panel format in that notification gives a single "total sugars" figure, which does not separate sugar that came with the fruit from sugar that was added. Both are official guidance, and neither is a pass or fail test for a single bottle.

The Healthier Choice logo

Some Thai drinks carry a Healthier Choice logo. It is a public, voluntary scheme. Notification No. 373 (2016) defines a "nutrition symbol" as a mark showing a healthier-choice option that helps consumers choose food. A maker that wants to show one must first have the food checked and approved by the Nutrition Promotion Foundation, Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, or by another body assigned under the National Food Committee. The scheme's website lists 15 product categories, beverages among them, with criteria set group by group. The logo is not a sugar figure. The grams on the label are.

In short

Read the sugar figure for the whole pack, then check how many servings the pack contains.
The Thai panel shows "total sugars" per serving. The GDA label on the front shows the whole pack.
GDA percentages use a Thai reference of 65 grams of sugar. This is not the same number as the WHO guideline.
WHO says free sugars should be less than 10% of energy, about 50 grams for a 2,000 kilocalorie day, and counts sugars in fruit juice.
The Healthier Choice logo is a voluntary public scheme, checked before it can be used. It does not replace the sugar figure.