Health Star Ratings have been designed to provide “at a glance” information to reflect the nutrition value and healthiness of packaged foods. The system uses a rating scale of 0.5 to 5 stars — more stars mean a healthier food choice.
The system was upgraded on 14 November with lower ratings for products with higher levels of sugar and salt – including sugary breakfast foods and fruit juices. Minimally processed fruit and vegetables get an automatic five star rating.
They are an independent rating. When developing Health Star Ratings, the New Zealand and Australian governments worked with public health experts, the food industry, and consumer groups.
Food manufacturers can voluntarily include them on food labels. Consumer NZ considers this a weakness of the system and has called for it to be mandatory so consumers can compare all products on supermarket shelves.
Currently stars will only become mandatory if they are not on 70% of all products by 2025. Consumer NZ claims that manufacturers can cherry pick and avoid putting stars on less healthy products. They are also critical that while the new standards heavily penalise total sugars they do not focus on added sugars. Consumer NZ will be campaigning for added sugars to be included.
See more articles on the issue at Consumer NZ