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Malaysia plans A-to-D food grades to nudge manufacturers — and consumers — towards healthier choices

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Malaysia could introduce a new food labelling system giving packaged food and drinks nutrition grades from A to D by the end of this year, Health Ministry...

Malay MailIda Lim2026-10-01 17:29查看原文 ↗

Malaysia plans to implement a new food labeling system by the end of the year, assigning nutrition grades from A to D on packaged foods and beverages to promote healthier choices.

Health Ministry official Dr. Yap Wei Aun emphasized the initiative's role in preventive health, aiming to encourage the food industry to reformulate products to meet healthier criteria.

The program, developed in collaboration with Singapore, will also involve restrictions on advertising less healthy products.

Initially focusing on sugar content in drinks, this system represents an effort to address dietary health risks and shift the broader food environment towards healthier options.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Malaysia could introduce a new food labelling system giving packaged food and drinks nutrition grades from A to D by the end of this year, Health Ministry official Dr Yap Wei Aun has said.

Dr Yap, chief executive officer of the Health Ministry’s Health Transformation Office, said prevention was a fundamental aspect of public health and cited the proposed labelling system as an example of the government’s preventive health initiatives.

He said the labels could help nudge Malaysians towards healthier food choices without relying on individual willpower alone, while also encouraging the food and beverage industry to reformulate products to make them healthier.

“At the population level, I’m a little bit less convinced that we can depend on willpower and education to really drive lifestyle change,” he said yesterday during the “Innovating for Retirement Wellbeing” panel session at the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) International Social Wellbeing Conference (ISWC) 2026.

Dr Yap said the Health Ministry had been working with partners, including the food industry, to introduce the “front-of-pack labelling” system, under which bottles of drinks or packaged food would carry an A, B, C or D grade.

An A grade would represent the healthiest option, while D would indicate the least healthy.

“So now does it depend on the person per se? Actually, the main effect of this is behaviour change happening at the industry level, in terms of reformulating these foods so that they meet the A and B criteria, rather than the C and D criteria.

“And then when these foods go out, you don’t even depend on consumer choice, prices, availability. The whole health environment has changed,” he said, adding that the approach would reduce reliance on public education alone.

“So, we were collaborating, there’s a terms of reference and a committee jointly with Singapore, because we realised that we share the same food environment. And hopefully this will be rolled out,” he said.

“So we are aiming for gazettement probably end of the year,” he added.

Dr Yap said the measure was among initiatives being developed to address major health risks including physical inactivity and mental health, as well as dietary risks in Malaysia involving “too much salt, too much sugar, and too much calories overall”.

Although the new labelling system may appear to be primarily a “consumer choice” initiative, he said it could work alongside other public health policies to encourage healthier lifestyles by changing the wider food environment.

“Imagine if you are a school — you can just decide we will only serve A and B in the school compound. If you are doing government procurement, if you are an employer, you are only going to make A and B available,” he said.

He said other measures could include restricting advertising for less healthy products and changing how food is presented in retail spaces.

Nutri-Grade in Malaysia and Singapore

While Dr Yap did not use the term “Nutri-Grade” to describe the front-of-pack labelling system, Singapore currently uses the term, which has also previously been cited by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad in relation to Malaysia’s plans.

In a written parliamentary reply on October 27, 2025, Dzulkefly said Malaysia already had a voluntary front-of-pack food labelling system known as the Healthier Choice Logo (HCL), which assesses nutritional components including fat, salt and sugar content.

At the time, 1,002 food and beverage products had received HCL recognition.

In the same reply, Dzulkefly said Malaysia was developing a mandatory Nutri-Grade system based on sugar levels in drinks, which would be introduced in stages, beginning with ready-to-drink products before being extended to freshly prepared beverages.

Under the proposed system, Dzulkefly said advertising would be completely banned for drinks given a D grade — those containing more than 10g of sugar per 100ml — on any platform.

He said the measure was intended to encourage manufacturers to reformulate their products and reduce sugar levels.

Dzulkefly said Malaysia’s Nutri-Grade system was initially focusing on the sugar content of drinks because the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2024 showed an increase in sugar intake among Malaysians, with more than half of free-sugar intake coming from beverages.

According to the World Health Organization, free sugars include those added to food and drinks by manufacturers, cooks or consumers, as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.

In Singapore, the Nutri-Grade system assigns drinks grades from A to D based on their sugar and saturated fat content.

Nutri-Grade labels are mandatory for drinks graded C and D, while advertising for products given a D grade is prohibited.