Health Star Rating – new food labelling system
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI),
NEW ZEALAND
On 27 June 2014 the Minister for Food Safety, Nikki Kaye, announced that the Government will be joining with Australia’s (voluntary) Front of Pack Nutrition Labelling system. The ‘Health Star Food Rating’ system is about making it quicker and easier for New Zealand consumers to make better informed, healthy choices.
The Health Star Rating System uses a star rating scale of ½ to 5 stars and, except for some exclusions like alcohol, it is able to be used on all packaged food products for retail sale.
Foods with more stars are said to have better nutritional value. The number of stars associated with each food is determined by an algorithm that considers the overall nutritional value of the food product – not just one aspect, such as sugar or fat content.
Interesting concept.