Purpose: Front-of-pack labelling systems, such as the Health Star Rating (HSR), aim to aid healthy consumer dietary choices and complement national dietary guidelines. Dietary guidelines aim to be holistic by extending beyond the individual nutrients of food, including other food components that indicate diet quality, including whole grains. We aimed to test the feasibility of including whole grains in the HSR algorithm, to better inform dietary guidance in Australia coherent with existing dietary guidelines. Methods: We assigned whole-grain points as a favourable component of the HSR based on the whole-grain content of foods. We compared the original, and three modified HSR algorithms (including altered thresholds for star ratings) using independent-samples median tests. Finally, we used Spearman’s correlation to measure the strength of association between an item’s nutritional composition (all components of the HSR algorithm including all favourable and unfavourable components) a
The failed voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) system must urgently be made mandatory to ensure New Zealanders can make easy, healthy choices at the supermarket
The failed voluntary Health Star Rating system must urgently be made mandatory to ensure New Zealanders can make easy, healthy choices at the supermarket. In New Zealand, diet and excess body weight are responsible for 18% of premature death and disability.