Health Star Ratings Under Review Over Loopholes For Food Manufacturers
Do you look at health star ratings?
Goodgood.com
Should health star ratings on pre-packaged foods be mandatory?
Public health experts are worried producers are "gaming the system" by only displaying the star ratings on healthy goods - and exploiting loopholes around sugar, salt and fat content.
Currently the ratings are only being displayed on around 30 per cent of foods and many of these products have scored at the upper end of the five-star scale.
Kathryn Backholer, from the Public Health Association of Australia, said the voluntary health star rating system was not working for consumers.
"Too few products have a health star rating and those that do, tend to be at the healthier end," she told AAP.
"We anticipate that the newly re-elected Morrison Government will want to improve the Health Star Rating system further to assist everyone to make better choices when they do buy packaged food."
The federal government has commissioned an independent five year review into the health star ratings, which is due next month.
