KIDS: Prune juice, ew.
Well, whatever sort of juice is your jam, a glass of sweet, fruity goodness has been an Aussie favourite for a long time. But Australian juices are set to lose some of their star power here at the supermarket.
AMELIA, REPORTER: All fruit and veggie juices are about to drop down to 2.5 stars on the health star rating system. You know the one. You can find it right here on lots of processed and packaged foods at the supermarket.
It s a system that the government brought in a few years back to help shoppers make healthier choices. A product gets fewer stars for higher amounts of saturated fat, salt and sugars. But it gains stars the more fibre, protein, fruit, veggies, nuts and legumes or beans you have in your product. That s worked into an overall score out of five from as healthy as it gets to a sometimes food. Companies don t have to display their rating but a lot of them do. Recently, there was a big review into these little stars, which recommended mor
The fact that they promote highly-processed products ahead of fresh produce is something that we cannot understand
Peak fruit industry bodies encourage their growers not to use Health Star Ratings after baffling changes to juice calculator
Australia s peak apple and pear industry body is calling on growers and juice producers to strongly consider removing the Health Star Rating from their labels, following a decision to give fresh fruit and vegetable juice a lower health star rating than diet cola.
The Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation voted to adopt changes to the Health Star Rating (HSR) calculator, effectively giving 100 per cent fresh fruit juice a 2.5-star rating, while sugar-free diet soft drinks receive 3.5 stars. APAL and Citrus Australia have lobbied for amendments that would recognise the many other nutritional benefits that fresh juice provides.
AUSVEG
AUSVEG, Australia’s peak industry body for the vegetable and potato industries, has called on state governments to heed the calls of Australia’s fruit industries for common sense to prevail with the Health Star Rating system to ensure consumers have simple, clear information around the health of the products they buy.
Government Ministers will meet at the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation on Friday to vote on a proposal to change the Health Star Rating (HSR) system, which would result in the HSR for fresh juices downgraded to below those of diet soft drinks.