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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/01/australia-health-star-rating-system-failures-issues>
"The government’s flagship initiative to improve Australians’ diets is “working
great” as a marketing tool for food manufacturers, but is not helping people
make healthier choices, new research has found.
The Health Star Rating system was introduced in 2014 as a government-led
front-of-pack nutrition label designed to be a simple way to compare the
overall nutritional quality of products on the shelf, as recommended by the
World Health Organisation.
The rating, from half to five stars, is calculated based on an algorithm that
factors in seven nutrients – points are lost for energy, saturated fat, sugar
and salt content but can be gained back for protein, fibre and fruit/vegetable
content.
But less than four out of 10 products on supermarket shelves that should carry
the Health Star Rating currently do, according to a report published Wednesday
by the George Institute for Global Health, affiliated with the University of
New South Wales. The ratings are intended for any product that has a nutrient
panel; single ingredient products such as plain sugar are excluded.
The main shortcoming of Australia’s system is that it is voluntary, said Dr
Alexandra Jones, senior author of the report, leading most manufacturers to use
it selectively – putting it on products that score well and leaving it off
those that don’t.
The research report found the percentage of products that displayed the health
star rating dropped from 40% in 2019 to 36% in 2023, which makes it “virtually
impossible” to meet the government’s target of 50% by 14 November 2023."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
