How to Read a Thai Nutrition Facts or GDA Label

Start with the serving line

The top line tells you how the numbers below are being counted. "ให้ประมาณ 3 ครั้ง ต่อถุง" (about 3 servings per bag) and "1/3 ถุง (33 กรัม)" (1/3 bag, 33 g) mean every number under it applies to one-third of the package. If you eat the whole bag, multiply everything by the number of servings.

Check energy per serving

พลังงาน (Energy) is the first number in the table, in kilocalories (กิโลแคลอรี). On the reference label, one serving is 180 kcal, so the whole 3-serving bag is 540 kcal.

Look at %Thai RDI, not just the gram amount

The right-hand column, ร้อยละของปริมาณที่แนะนำต่อวัน (%Thai RDI), tells you what share of a full day's recommended intake one serving uses up, based on a 2,000 kcal/day reference diet, the same baseline used across the region. A gram number alone doesn't tell you if that's a little or a lot; the percentage does.

Watch fat, sugar, and sodium: lower is generally better

ไขมันทั้งหมด (Total fat) and its subtype ไขมันอิ่มตัว (Saturated fat), น้ำตาลทั้งหมด (Total sugars), and โซเดียม (Sodium) are the nutrients worth limiting. As a rough guide, 5% RDI or less per serving is low, and 20% RDI or more is high. That makes it useful for comparing two products at a glance.

Protein, carbohydrate, and cholesterol fill out the rest

โปรตีน (Protein) and คาร์โบไฮเดรตทั้งหมด (Total carbohydrate) tell you what's fueling the calorie count, and คอเลสเตอรอล (Cholesterol) rounds out the panel. Some labels add potassium (โพแทสเซียม) and other micronutrients below the core line-up.

Check what the graphic is measuring first

Read the line above the cylinders first. "คุณค่าทางโภชนาการต่อ 1 ถุง" (nutrition value per 1 bag) and "ควรแบ่งกิน 4 ครั้ง" (should be divided into 4 servings) tell you whether the four numbers below describe the whole package or a fraction of it, and how many times to split it. On the reference graphic, the numbers are for the entire bag, split across 4 servings. Eating the whole bag at once means taking in all four numbers, not a quarter of them.

Scan the four cylinders

พลังงาน (Energy, kcal), น้ำตาล (Sugar, g), ไขมัน (Fat, g), and โซเดียม (Sodium, mg) are always shown in that order, each as a gram or kcal amount plus its own %RDI underneath, marked with an asterisk.

The %RDI under each cylinder is the fast comparison tool

Each cylinder's percentage is what makes GDA useful for quick decisions. If sugar is 62% RDI per package, finishing the bag gets you most of the way to a full day's recommended sugar limit.

Read the footnote, which defines the baseline

The line at the bottom, "คิดเป็นร้อยละของปริมาณสูงสุดที่บริโภคได้ต่อวัน" (calculated as a percentage of the maximum recommended daily intake), sets the baseline for the percentages. It's the same 2,000 kcal/day-style reference as the full Nutrition Facts table, condensed to four nutrients instead of a dozen.