World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 57

World Food Policy

Supermarkets can contribute
to population weight gain through the
sale of sugar-sweetened beverages, and
other highly processed, inexpensive
foods that are major “vectors” of sugar,
fat, and salt in transitioning Asian
countries (Baker and Friel 2014). Major
food processing companies have been
shown to increase their profits by
making and selling processed rather than
unprocessed foods (Stuckler and Nestle
2012). Internationally, supermarkets are
implicated in over-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in lower middle
income countries (LMIC) (Gomez
and Ricketts 2013). The evidence is
mixed however, with an association
between supermarket shopping and
unhealthy food consumption observed
in Guatamala (Asfaw 2008) but not in
Tunisia (Tessier et al. 2008). In Indonesia,
supermarket shopping is associated
with overweight and obesity in children
living in high income households but
not in adults (Umberger et al. 2014). In
contrast in Kenya, supermarket shopping
was associated with unhealthier weight
in adults but reduced underweight in
children and may be related to consumers’
initial nutritional status (Qaim et al.
2014).

The precautionary principle is
used to invoke the prevention of harms
to health even when the evidence of risks
is inconclusive and it has been advocated
in response to the influence of multinational food companies (Stuckler and
Nestle 2012). It can also be applied to the
effects of large national and international
food businesses as they influence
food producer decisions and their
cultivation practices. In the case of the
food retail transition, application of the

precautionary principle would support
the protection of alternative sources of
fresh food, rather than allowing food
purchasing to become concentrated
by a few conglomerates which offer
less healthy retail environments. It is
particularly relevant in this context
because, although the diets of those
purchasing at modern retail formats are
likely to be less healthy than those of
traditional food markets shoppers, poor
health outcomes take time to appear.

International research indicates
that the dietary and health effects of
the transition to supermarkets depends
greatly on the pre-existing food system
and on broader social, economic, and
political conditions, such as urbanization,
sedentary working conditions, carreliance,
and
increasing
female
employment among others. Nevertheless,
the food retail system is influential;
the Thai population has gained weight
(Aekplakorn 2011) as the number of
modern food retail outlets, including
convenience stores, has risen (Kelly et al.
2010). Thai supermarkets reached annual
compound growth rates of 16% between
2001 and 2009 (Reardon et al. 2012), and
packaged foods from modern retail have
increased in sales by 65% over 15 years
(Ng and Dunford 2013).

In modern western countries
supermarket growth has been linked to
a decline in small farms, and the growth
of agri-business which has come to
dominate food retail (Wiskerke 2009).
Thailand’s major supermarket chains
are using many of the same strategies as
those adopted by Western supermarkets
to capture market power (Dixon and
Banwell 2015). Currently, supermarkets
in Thailand procure fresh produce in
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