Public health groups call on food ministers to mandate the display of Health Star Ratings

Public health groups are calling for the mandatory display of Health Star Ratings on all products, with food manufacturers accused of being “highly selective” about which items carry it.

Australia’s voluntary Health Star Ratings system has flatlined with food manufacturers accused of being “highly selective” about which of their products carry it.

Health Star Ratings (HSR) were introduced a decade ago as a front-of-pack labelling system to give consumers an indication of a product’s nutritional value.

It gives a rating from a low of half a star to a high of five stars, but food manufacturers can decide if they display it or not.

Leading public health groups claim the optional display of the HSR is the problem and are calling on food ministers to hold the line in making it mandatory when they meet on Friday.

A new report by The George Institute for Global Health found that just over a third of eligible supermarket items carry HSR.

Melbourne mum Anna Plokhikh with her children Jordan (right), 8, and Liam, 6. She says the HSR system can be confusing. Picture: Mark Stewart

The medical research institute said this is well short of the 60 per cent target set by the federal government for this year.

Lead of its Food Governance Program Alexandra Jones said targets were falling further out of reach.

“It has completely stagnated,” Dr Jones said. “Products displaying HSR have flatlined, there’s been virtually zero progress since last year.

“Most food companies are still not providing consumers with essential information that helps them easily understand the healthiness of what’s available on our supermarket shelves.”

Food for Health Alliance, along with The George Institute and VicHealth said “enough is enough”.

VicHealth’s Michelle Murray said she was disappointed, but not surprised by the latest data.

“We know that the big commercial food entities are exploiting the HSR system,” Ms Murray said.

She said companies “clearly have no intention of meeting their targets”, adding this was evidenced by the fact they put HSR on healthier products and avoid displaying it on things like ice cream and kids’ snack bars that would get a low score.

The George Institute report also found:

•Just 16 per cent of products that would have been rated a half star were labelled.

•Only a quarter of branded products feature HSR compared to 80 per cent of supermarket home brand products.

It comes as new research by Cancer Council Victoria showed more than 80 per cent of consumers want mandatory HSR.

Accountant and mum of two Anna Plokhikh supported the call for it to be mandatory on all packaged foods.

Mum to sons Jordan, 8, and Liam, 6, she said it was confusing to pick up six different muesli bars and three of them might have HSR and another three might not, and they can be from the same manufacturer.

“It makes you wonder why,” she said. “And you can’t compare apples to apples.”

Ms Plokhikh said she was trying to educate her sons on healthy food choices.

“The star rating, I think, works really well and you can show them something has five stars and explain it might be a better choice because they are used to stars and reward charts from a young age.”

The George Institute’s free FoodSwitch app gives shoppers star ratings for products that don’t yet display it on pack.

The George Institute produced this in August highlighting the HSR of some products. Image: Supplied.

It said products like Kellogg’s Choc Chip LCM bars would score a HSR of 1.0. Kellogg’s provide this on their website, but not on their packages.

Uncle Toby’s Cheddar Cheese Le Snak would get a HSR of 1.0 but does not display it, Primo’s Stackers Mild Salami and Cheese would score just 0.5 stars.

Table of Plenty’s mini rice cakes with berry yoghurt would score 1.5 stars, while Fantastic Rice Crackers Barbeque Crackers would get 3.0.