Thailand's food retail transition: supermarket and fresh market effects on diet quality and health

Abstract

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“…Modernisation of food retail outlets or ‘supermarketisation’ has been considered as an important driver of the nutrition transition that is taking place in some Asian emerging economies (Kelly et al . ; Reardon et al . ; Umberger et al .…”

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“…As an unintended consequence, an increasing number of consumers started shopping at uncontrolled and unhygienic street markets (Wertheim-Heck et al, 2014b). Moreover, recent studies in Thailand indicate that a decrease in wet markets, which provide affordable healthy foods, puts healthy diets at risk (Banwell et al, 2013;Kelly et al, 2014). Therefore, food safety policies that exclusively promote the supermarket retail format may actually be counterproductive.…”

What's Old Is New Again: Innovative Policies to Support Thai Fresh Markets Within a Healthy Food System

“…Supermarkets and hypermarkets until recently have been mainly located on the outskirts of towns, and therefore accessible and convenient to those who own cars, which is an increasing segment of the Thai population. Results from the 2012 survey, described earlier, have shown that over a 10 year period the proportion of the sample who had access to a supermarket increased from 47% to 85% (Kelly et al 2014). Urban residents, those who owned a bicycle or motorcycle and those who received lower incomes were more likely than others to purchase fresh produce mainly at fresh markets.…”

“…The 2012 Thai Cohort Sub‐Study demonstrated that those who mainly used modern retail formats, such as supermarkets and convenience stores, had a higher consumption of unhealthy foods such as soft drinks, snack foods, processed meats, western style bakery goods, instant foods, and deep fried foods. Those who shopped mainly at fresh markets had a higher consumption of vegetables (Kelly et al 2014).…”