Malaysia

The INFORMAS team in Malaysia is led by Professor Dr. Tilakavati Karupaiah at Taylor’s University. Two process modules of INFORMAS (public and private sector) have been implemented here, representing the first national food environment policy survey in Malaysia to be conducted. The Malaysia team was supported by INFORMAS module leaders, Prof. Boyd Swinburn, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bridget Kelly, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gary Sacks and Dr. Stefanie Vandevijvere.  These activities came under an International Development Research Centre (IDRC) funded project titled, “Mapping the implementation of priority food environment policies to tackle diet-related non-communicable diseases in South-East Asia: Comparison between three countries” and involved Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand. Ng See Hoe (William) was the PhD student/ Project Administrator for this project in Malaysia.

  1. Food-Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) – Data collection for the public sector module started in August 2016 with a Food-EPI Expert Rating of policy evidence on 11th April 2017. Experts from non-government organisations (NGO), professional societies and academia were involved with the rating process. Early findings were disseminated at the ICN symposium in 2017 with country clearance and the Final Technical report was released on 23rd July 2018 by the Deputy Director-General of Health. The findings were also published in the Sept/October issue of the Public Health Nutrition [see output 5].
  2. Business Impact Assessment (BIA) – Obesity – Data collection for the private sector, commenced in early August 2017. The study adopted the INFORMAS protocol with adjustments to suit the Malaysian context such as (a) the establishment of Expert and Reviewer Panels to perform the assessment and formulate recommendations; (b) application of ‘simple majority rule’ in ratings; (c) random market surveys to complement the evidence collection for non-consenting companies. Later, findings were disseminated firstly in a closed-door meeting with the companies, followed by a public forum with the key stakeholders such as government stakeholders, professional organisations, NGOs and others on 29th July 2019. Post dissemination sessions included the official delivery of the full technical report completed in November 2019. The findings were published in the Globalization and Health [see output 14].

A new 3-year IDRC-funded research titled “Comparing the extent and nature of unhealthy food and drink TV marketing to girls and boys across nine countries in Asia” was secured with support from INFORMAS (Prof. Dr. Boyd Swinburn). The project is led by the Malaysia team (Prof. Dr. Tilakavati Karupaiah) with eight country teams, comprising Bangladesh, China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This joint effort will aim to assess the exposure and power of TV food marketing in these countries and build critical country-level evidence of unhealthy food marketing targeting children. Evidence outcomes will inform relevant Asian stakeholders on local policy frameworks’ progress to control unhealthy food marketing and strengthen strategies to promote a healthier food environment for the Asian people. Four virtual capacity building sessions (due to COVID-19 pandemic) for the INFORMAS food promotion module – television protocol were organized during 2020 with Dr. Sally Mackay and A/Prof. Dr. Bridget Kelly as prime faculty and ably supported by William Ng. Data collection and coding are underway as per the reporting date.

We are also proud to report that our INFORMAS collaboration in Malaysia has produced one PhD scholar, Dr Ng See Hoe (William) from the University of Wollongong, Australia. (subject to only minor revisions received on 19th February 2021).

Professor Dr. Tilakavati KarupaiahDr. Tilakavati Karupaiah, PhD, APD

SRI Professor, Taylor’s University

Phone: +60392897245, mobile (hp)+60192731400

Email:tilly_karu@yahoo.co.uk  / tilakavati.karupaiah@taylors.edu.my

Module

Status (as of February 2021)

Outputs

Public Sector (Food EPI)

  • Conducted Food-EPI Expert Rating (FEER) Workshop on 11 April 2017 and completed prioritisation by the Experts in June 2017.
  • Received country clearance to disseminate the results in September 2017. Subsequently, we advocated the findings in one international conference (ICN 2017 Buenos Aires) and 2 local meetings (MASO 2017 and UNU-IIGH 2017).  
  • Received confirmation to publish the Technical Report titled, ‘Food-Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): Benchmarking Current Policies and Determining Priorities for Future Policies for the Malaysian Government 2016-2017’ in January 2018.
  • Launched the Technical Report on 23 July 2018 together with all engaged stakeholders with the Deputy Director General of Health (Public Health) officiating the event. The launch event received good attention from the local media (e.g. The Star – 3 pages, full colour on 19 August 2018; News Strait Times on 23 July 2018 – ¼ page and Berita Harian 20 August 2018 – 1 page).
  • Published the Food-EPI findings in Public Health Nutrition (refer to output 5) and the article was selected as the Nutrition Society Paper of the Month for October 2018 in the Cambridge Core Blog.
  • We continuously advocate the research findings to relevant government stakeholders through existing platforms, in order to enable a better buy-in of the proposed policy package suggested by the experts.
  • Contributed Malaysia Food-EPI data and provided inputs to the INFORMAS multi-countries’ comparison article (refer to output 6).
  • We presented part of the data from Food-EPI related to nutrition labelling at the Prince Mahidol Award Conference (2019) as the poster presentation (refer to output 8).
  • We presented part of the Food-EPI findings (i.e. (a) A case study on nutrition labelling of packaged foods in Malaysia; and (b) Mapping Progress to Targets for Unhealthy Food Marketing to Children in Malaysia) at
    the World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2020 (oral presentations, virtual event, see outputs 10-11).
3-6, 8, 10-11
Private Sector
  • Prior to the rating process, Mr. Ng See Hoe (William), the PhD student in this project had a short stay
    with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gary Sacks and Ella Robinson at Deakin University (Date: 24.6.2018 – 4.7.2018). Areas
    for assistance included to (1) provide hands-on training for rating, (2) finalise rating protocol and (3) revise the
    BIA-Obesity marking scheme to include the local context.
  • Conducted the IDRC Midterm Training Workshop on 15 – 17 August 2017. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gary Sacks was invited to be the Lead Faculty for this Workshop to provide training on private sector assessment (Business Impact Assessment (BIA) – Obesity; Corporate Political Activities). Representatives from Vietnam (n=3) and Thailand (n=1) attended the training workshop in Malaysia. Through the workshop, we finalised 33 companies to be assessed under BIA-Obesity.
  • Begun to engage through the representative industry association, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) in mid-October 2017. Through a series of engagements, we reached out to individual FMM members by early January 2018.
  • Finalised the BIA-Obesity evidence reports on 16 July 2018 (last date to return feedback by the engaged companies).
  • Malaysia and Vietnam will be adopting a different BIA-Obesity rating approach (i.e. setting up an expert panel consisting of international and local experts). Prior to the rating process, Mr. Ng See Hoe (William), the PhD student in this project had a short attachment with Prof. Dr. Gary Sacks and Ella Robinson at Deakin University (Date: 24.6.2018 – 4.7.2018). Areas for assistance included to (1) provide hands-on training for rating, (2) finalise rating protocol and (3) revise the BIA-Obesity marking scheme to include the local context.
  • The BIA-Obesity Workshop (Initial) was conducted on 24-25 July 2018 to provide familiarisation training to 6 experts: 2 international academia, a local academia, an NGO representative and 2 government stakeholders. Hands-on training was conducted by the research team with Experts completing rating for 3 companies. The Expert Panel agreed to continue the assessment for the remaining companies (n=28) and the process took approximately 4 months to be completed using ‘simple majority approach’.
  • Reviewer panel comprising of the Expert Panel and senior government officials revised the recommendations in 2 events (i.e. Dec 2018 and 17 Jan 2019).
  • Technical report was drafted. This report was reviewed with Gary Sacks, Boyd Swinburn and Ella Robinson at Deakin University on 17 April 2019.
  • Preliminary findings were returned to respective companies and a final deadline (28 May 2019) was set for company feedback. In the absence of any response, it was assumed the company was “acquiescent by silence” to the preliminary findings. With this, the research team will be hosting 2 events on 29 July 2019, including (1) a closed-door briefing session with the industry and (2) a public forum to disseminate the overall findings of BIA-Obesity Malaysia. We disseminated the Executive Summary brochure to all relevant stakeholders. The afternoon event received a media coverage from the local media (e.g. News Strait Times on 18 August 2019 – 1 page, https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/08/513741
    /ban-junk-food-ads-govt-urged; Foodnavigator-asia.com on 23 June 2020, https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2020/06/23/Weak-commitments-Malaysian-big-food-firms-food-wanting-on-nutrition-commitments-obesity-expert).
  • The full technical report was disseminated through mail to respective stakeholders in November 2019 (refer to
    output 9).
  • We submitted the BIA-Obesity findings to an academic journal which is now under review (refer to output 10).
  • We published the BIA-Obesity findings in Globalization and Health (refer to output 14).
  • We will present the BIA-Obesity findings at the World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2020 (oral
    presentation, virtual, refer to output 12).
9-10, 12, 14
Food Composition Not planning to be conducted at the moment nil
Food Labelling Not planning to be conducted at the moment nil
Food Promotion

Television:

  • data collection completed for first round (2012-2013).   
  • A new project titled, “Understanding the role of food and drink marketing to children on their dietary practices across nine countries in Asia” was initiated in 2020. Training workshop sessions (virtual) were conducted by the INFORMAS team (Dr. Sally Mackay and A/Prof. Dr. Bridget Kelly) to country teams (n=9).
  • Data collection and coding are underway as per the reporting date.

Social media/Facebook/ Sports sponsorship/ Magazines/ Internet/ Outdoor advertising: Not planning to be conducted at the moment

Contributed to a dataset for TV food advertising classified using WHO Europe Nutrient Profiling Scheme for a multi-country comparison. The article was published (refer to output 7).

1,2
Food Prices
  • Planning to work on this as we have a database. Need to link with Module Leader.
nil
Food Retail Not planning to be conducted at the moment nil
Food Provision Not planning to be conducted at the moment nil
Food Trade & Investment Not planning to be conducted at the moment nil
  1. Ng SH, Kelly B, Se CH, Sahathevan S, Chinna K, Ismail MN, Karupaiah, T. Reading the mind of children in response to food advertising: A cross-sectional study of Malaysian schoolchildren’s attitudes towards food and beverages advertising on television.BMC Public Health. 2015; 15: 1047. doi:1186/s12889-015-2392-z
  2. Ng SH, Kelly B, Se CH, Chinna K, Jamil SM, Shanthi K, Noor IM, Karupaiah T. Obesogenic television food advertising to children in Malaysia: Sociocultural variations.Journal of Global Health Action. 2014, 7: 25169, doi:3402/gha.v7.25169
  3. Ng SH, Swinburn B, Kelly B, Vandevijvere S, Yeatman H, Ismail MN, Karupaiah T. Mapping the Extent of Implementation of Food Environment Policies from The Perspective of a Low-Middle Income Country-Malaysia. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 2017, 71: 212-212. [Conference presentation].
  4. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2018, Food-Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): Benchmarking Current Policies and Determining Priorities for Future Policies for the Malaysian Government 2016-2017, UKM Cetak: Bangi, Selangor. [Technical Report – URL: https://auckland.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Food-Environment_Policy_Index_Food-EPI_Benchmarking_current_policies_and_determining_priorities_for_future_policies_for_the_Malaysian_Government_2016-2017_/8251361].
  5. Ng SH, Swinburn B, Kelly B, Vandevijvere S, Yeatman H, Ismail MN, Karupaiah T. Extent of implementation of food environment policies by the Malaysian Government: Gaps and priority recommendations. Public Health Nutrition. 2018, 1-12. doi: 10.1017/S1368980018002379.
  6. Vandevijvere S, Barquera S, Caceres G, Corvalan C, Karupaiah T, Kroker‐Lobos MF, L’Abbé M, Ng SH, Phulkerd S, Ramirez‐Zea M, Rebello SA, Reyes M, Sacks G, María Sánchez Nóchez C, Sanchez K, Sanders D, Spires M, Swart R, Tangcharoensathien V, Tay Z, Taylor A, Tolentino‐Mayo L, Van Dam R, Vanderlee L, Watson F, Whitton C, Swinburn B. An 11‐country study to benchmark the implementation of recommended nutrition policies by national governments using the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index, 2015‐ Obesity Reviews 2019: 1-10. DOI: 10.1111/obr.12819.
  7. Kelly B, Vandevijvere S, Ng SH, Adams J, Allemandi L, Bahena‐Espina L, Barquera S, Boyland E, Calleja P, Carmona‐Garcés IC, Castronuovo L, Cauchi D, Correa T, Corvalán C, Cosenza‐Quintana EL, Fernández‐Escobar C, González‐Zapata LI, Halford J, Jaichuen N, Jensen ML, Karupaiah T, Kaur A, Kroker‐Lobos MF, Mchiza Z, Miklavec K, Parker W, Kent MP, Pravst I, Ramírez‐Zea M, Reiff S, Reyes M, Royo‐Bordonada MA, Rueangsom P, Scarborough P, Tiscornia MV, Tolentino‐Mayo L, Wate J, White M, Zamora‐Corrales I, Zeng L, Swinburn B. Global benchmarking of children’s exposure to television advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages across 22 countries. Obesity Reviews 2019: 1-13. DOI: 10.1111/obr.12840.
  8. Ng SH, Kelly B, Yeatman H, Swinburn B, Vandevijvere S, Noor MI, Karupaiah T. Mapping nutrition labelling policies in Malaysia. PMAC Conference 29 Jan – 3 Feb 2019. [Poster presentation – Poster Slot E06, http://pmac2019.com/site/poster].
  9. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019, Benchmarking Food Industry Commitments for to Create a Healthier Food Environment: Business Impact Assessment (BIA) – Obesity Malaysia 2019, UKM Cetak: Bangi, Selangor. [Technical Report – https://doi.org/10.17608/k6.auckland.12084969 and Executive Summary – https://doi.org/10.17608/k6.auckland.12085044]
  10. Ng, SH, Kelly, B, Yeatman, H, Swinburn, B, Vandevijvere, S, Noor, MI & Karupaiah, T. A case study on nutrition labelling of packaged foods in Malaysia. World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2020, 1 May – 5 June 2020 (virtual event) [Oral presentation, rapid-fire, Congress Day 2, 3D Effective food labelling, standards & regulation, 11.49am-11.55am].
  11. Ng, SH, Kelly, B, Yeatman, H, Swinburn, B, Vandevijvere, S, Noor, MI & Karupaiah, T. Mapping Progress to Targets for Unhealthy Food Marketing to Children in Malaysia. World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2020, 1 May – 5 June 2020 (virtual event) [Oral presentation, rapid-fire, Congress Day 1, 2D Advertising and marketing to children, 2.42pm-2.48pm].
  12. Karupaiah, T, Ng, SH, Chinna, K, Noor, MI, Sacks, G, Kelly, B, Yeatman, H, Robinson, E, Swinburn, B & Vandevijvere, S. Business Impact Assessment (BIA)-Obesity Malaysia: Benchmarking top food industries’ commitments and disclosures. World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2020, 1 May – 5 June 2020 (virtual event) [Oral presentation, rapid-fire, Congress Day 2, 2E Food industry roles, responsibilities & impacts, 2.56pm-3.02pm].
  13. Sacks, G, Vanderlee, L, Robinson, E, Vandevijvere, S, Cameron, AJ, Mhurchu, CN, Lee, A, Ng, SH, Karupaiah, T, Vergeer, L, L’Abbé, M, Swinburn, B. BIA‐Obesity (Business Impact Assessment—Obesity and population‐level nutrition): A tool and process to assess food company policies and commitments related to obesity prevention and population nutrition at the national level. Obesity Reviews 2019, 20(S2):78-89. doi:10.1111/obr.12878
  14. Ng, SH, Sacks, G, Kelly, B, Yeatman, H, Robinson, E, Swinburn, B, Vandevijvere, S, Chinna, K, Ismail, MN, Karupaiah, T. Benchmarking the transparency, comprehensiveness and specificity of population nutrition commitments of major food companies in Malaysia. Globalization and Health 2020, 16:35. doi:10.1186/s12992-020-00560-9
  15. Ng, SH, Kelly, B, Yeatman, H, Swinburn, B, Karupaiah, T. Tracking Progress from Policy Development to Implementation: A Case Study on Adoption of Mandatory Regulation for Nutrition Labelling in Malaysia. Nutrients 2021, 13(2):457. doi:10.3390/nu13020457
 
  • International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada
  • Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (PhD scholarship at University of Wollongong for candidate Ng See Hoe (William) starting from 2016-2021)
  • School of Healthcare Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia (in-kind contribution – infrastructure and facilities support)
  • Early Start Research Institute, School of Health & Society, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Australia (in-kind contribution – infrastructure and facilities support for PhD student)