This Valentine's season, Thailand's Department of Health is leveraging February's association with sweetness to launch a campaign that's anything but saccharine.
In partnership with seven major beverage companies representing nine brands, the initiative redefines "normal sweetness" as 50% of current sugar levels in prepared drinks. The effort targets a pressing public health challenge: Thai consumers currently consume an average of 21 teaspoons of sugar daily — more than three times the World Health Organization's recommendation of no more than six teaspoons per day.
The participating brands include major convenience store chains, gas station cafés and specialty coffee operators, and they've committed to voluntarily adjusting their sweetness standards. While some brands are starting with pilot menus and others are implementing changes across all offerings, the collaboration represents a significant shift in how Thailand's beverage industry approaches consumer health. The campaign builds on the country's existing "less sweet can be ordered" policy, but transforms the default rather than just offering alternatives.
TREND BITE
Rather than imposing regulations, the Department of Health is orchestrating voluntary industry coordination — creating social proof that makes sweetness reduction feel like collective progress rather than individual sacrifice. With prepared beverages representing a major source of added sugar consumption globally, this campaign could inspire similar collaborations in other markets where excess sugar intake has become normalized. The real test: whether consumers will embrace the new standard or simply customize back to higher sweetness levels, revealing whether default settings can truly reshape taste preferences.