Why the Australian Health Star Rating System for Food is Broken
If you live in Australia, you’re probably familiar with the Australian health star rating, which is basically the amount of stars that are on products you can find it supermarkets. They’re supposed to be a way for consumers to do a quick evaluation as to how healthy the food actually is but it’s not always truthful.
The health star rating is obviously the most prominent nutrition policy in Australia because it’s right there in front of the packets. But a recent study by Deakin University, led by Sarah Dickie from Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, found 3 quarters of ultra-processed food and more than half of discretionary food products displayed a health star rating of 2.5 stars or more.
5 star health
What this study did was look at all of the new food products displaying the health star rating launched between June 2014 and June 2019. Researchers evaluated that health star rating against Nova, which is a classification of food based on its processing levels, and measured it against the Australian dietary guidelines to determine whether there’s some sort of alignment or not.
For better understanding, Nova classifies foods as either unprocessed foods, processed culinary ingredients, minimally processed foods and ultra-processed foods. Various studies have identified the health risks of ultra-processed foods, which include significant increased risk in all forms of cancer, all forms of cardiovascular disease, significant increase in risks of depression and all-cause mortality. And there is more and more research that shows that the worst thing about food is the processing; it’s not the fat, the carbohydrate, the protein that’s in natural foods—it’s the level of processing that is actually killing us.
With this Deakin University study, they found that 73% of ultra-processed food products have a 2.5 star rating or more, and there are ratings as high as 3 or 4 stars on junk foods which can easily mislead consumers about the healthiness of these packaged foods.
However, it’s important to note some things about the health star rating. This system does not compare all foods against each other in saying which is the healthiest; they compare foods within a particular category. So if you’re looking at breakfast cereals, you’re comparing it against other breakfast cereals, not against other food groups like fruits and vegetables.
So, there are things that really stick out in this health star rating. Take the following products and their ratings for example:
Atkin’s Smooth Chocolate Low-Carb Protein Shake Got 5 Stars
Berri Quelch 99% Fruit Juice Ice Tubes Got 5 Stars
Street Blue Ribbon Vanilla Bean Reduced Fat Ice Cream Got 4 and a Half Stars
Uncle Tobys Milk and Oats Vanilla Flavoured Milk Protein Crisps Bar Got 4 and Half Stars
Arnott’s Tiny Teddy Oat and Honey Biscuits Got 4 Stars
Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain To-Go Flavoured Squeezer Got 3 and a Half Stars
Tempura Battered Chicken Nuggets Got 3 and a Half Stars
The thing to notice about this the health star rating is it’s done in collaboration with food manufacturers, so they have a significant amount of say in it. But there has been some proposed changes to the health star rating system; however, in these proposed changes, both canola and sunflower oils will get 5 stars. These are examples of refined oils where they use chemicals, heat and high pressure along with deodorising and, sometimes, bleaching these oils during the production. Meanwhile, extra virgin olive oil will get 4 stars.
While there is a review going on about the health star rating, Paul thinks it doesn’t need to be a review. It needs to be a rip-this-off-and-start-again plan and do not let the food manufacturers have any say in it whatsoever. Otherwise, we are just going to go further down the path of obesity and diabetes because this system is highly misleading for consumers who are not well educated about nutrition.
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