Voluntary health star nutrition ratings introduced in Australia and New Zealand over a decade ago have improved the life expectancy of the Kiwi population by a little over an hour.
A study out of Wellington’s University of Otago modelled the health gains of the ratings on packaged foods introduced in New Zealand and Australia in 2014.
Dr Cristina Cleghorn said the system allowed consumers to compare similar packaged foods and choose healthier options.
Dr Cleghorn said the voluntary scheme rated the overall nutritional profile of packaged foods from half a star (less healthy) to five stars (most healthy) and was jointly supported by the New Zealand government, and the Australian and state and territory governments.
“Modelling indicated the scheme had led to small changes in people’s diets, with sodium intake reduced by 18 milligrams per person per day, and fibre intake up 0.04 grams per person per day,” she said.
“This corresponds to a small health gain, of 700 health-adjusted life years, over the lifetime of the population (5.3 million) at a net cost to the health system of NZ$8.4 million.”
Dr Cleghorn said this included the cost of the governance and operation of the system as well as monitoring, evaluation, social marketing and education.
She the voluntary nature of the scheme limited its impact on health outcomes, with recent research showing only about 30 percent of eligible foods in New Zealand display health star ratings.
“Under the voluntary scheme, the health star labels are mainly displayed on healthier products, with research in New Zealand finding products that displayed the labels had higher star ratings than the estimated ratings for products that did not display the stars.”
Dr Cleghorn said previous international research had found labelling schemes in other countries had prompted food manufacturers to reduce sodium and artificial trans-fats in foods.
She said the New Zealand research found there had been minimal reformulation of products in response to the health star labelling scheme, resulting in only small changes to people’s dietary intakes, with correspondingly small health gains.
Dr Cleghorn says it remains uncertain as to whether a mandatory health star rating scheme would have any impact on the level of calories people consumed and on reducing the risk of obesity.
“Our research suggests making the health star ratings mandatory would result in some health improvements, but there are still a lot of uncertainties around that.”
Read the full study: Estimated health impacts of reformulation resulting from Health Star Rating nutrition labelling in Aotearoa New Zealand.
