ArticleThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2018
Analysing the use of the Australian Health Star Rating system by level of food processing.
Article in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- A controlled before-after quasi-experimental study examining the impacts of a supermarket on-shelf nutrition labelling intervention on food sales by type of food processing.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Rethinking fussiness in commercial food contexts.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- An investigation of the change in alignment between the Health Star Rating Scheme and the Nova Food Processing Classification System and the Australian Dietary Guidelines.Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- The "pro-inflammatory imprint" of ultra-processed food exposure: a review of mechanisms affecting child and adolescent health and development via the gut microbiome-inflammation axis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Using commercial dataset for extracting information on nutrition composition for policy evaluation purposes.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Meta-analysis of extremotolerant microbes to address nutrient deficiencies in bioregenerative life support systems during Deep-space Missions.NPJ science of food · 2025Article
- Availability, healthiness and sodium content of packaged and unpackaged foods and beverages in nigeria: a cross-sectional study.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Article
- Ultra-Processed Foods in the Food Supply: Prevalence, Nutritional Composition and Use of Voluntary Labelling Schemes.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Modifying the Health Star Rating nutrient profiling algorithm to account for ultra-processing.Nutrition & dietetics : the journal of the Dietitians Association of Australia · 2025Article
- The case for mandatory - not voluntary - front-of-package nutrition labels.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2024Article
- Nutrients or processing? An analysis of food and drink items from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey based on nutrient content, the NOVA classification and front of package traffic light labelling.The British journal of nutrition · 2024Article
- Validation of the Thumbs food classification system as a tool to accurately identify the healthiness of foods.The British journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- Oh So Sweet: A Comparative Investigation of Retail Market Composition of Sweetened and Flavoured Beverages in Singapore and Australia.Nutrients · 2023Article
- A novel food processing-based nutrition classification scheme for guiding policy actions applied to the Australian food supply.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Evaluating intake levels of nutrients linked to non-communicable diseases in Australia using the novel combination of food processing and nutrient profiling metrics of the PAHO Nutrient Profile Model.European journal of nutrition · 2022Article
- Modelling the Impact of Reducing Ultra-Processed Foods Based on the NOVA Classification in Australian Women of Reproductive Age.Nutrients · 2022Article
- The Nutri-Score algorithm: Evaluation of its validation process.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Review
- Categorizing Foods by Relative Healthfulness: A Scoping Review of Front of Pack Labelling.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Health Star Ratings and Beverage Purchase Intentions: A Study of Australian and New Zealand Hospitality Consumers.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with diminished dietary quality and adverse health outcomes. The Australian Health Star Rating (HSR) is a nutrient-based front-of-pack (FOP) labelling system that assesses the 'healthiness' of foods on a scale of 0.5 to 5 stars based on their content of 'risk' and 'positive' nutrients. This study aimed to analyse the use of health stars on new packaged food products entering the Australian marketplace by level of food processing.
methodsThe Mintel Global New Product Database (GNPD) was searched to identify the number of stars displayed on the labels of all new packaged food products participating in the HSR system released into the Australian retail food supply between 27 June 2014 (the endorsement date) and 30 June 2017. Products were categorised by the four NOVA food processing categories: unprocessed and minimally processed (MP), processed culinary ingredients (PCI), processed (P), and ultra-processed (UP), and the distribution of the star ratings within each category was compared and analysed.
resultsThe majority of new food products displaying an HSR were UP (74.4%), followed by MP (12.5%), P (11.6%), and PCI (1.5%). The median HSR of MP products (4.5) was significantly higher than the median of P (4) and UP products (3.5) (all p < 0.05). In all NOVA categories HSR profiles were distributed towards higher star ratings, and the majority (77%) of UP products displayed an HSR ≥ 2.5.
conclusionsThe HSR is being displayed on a substantial proportion of newly released UP foods. Technical weaknesses, design flaws and governance limitations with the HSR system are resulting in 3 out of 4 instances of these UP foods displaying at least 2.5 so-called 'health' stars. These findings add further evidence to concerns that the HSR system, in its current form, is misrepresenting the healthiness of new packaged food products and creating a risk for behavioural nutrition.
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