The Health Star Rating system – is its reductionist (nutrient) approach a benefit or risk for tackling dietary risk factors?

Abstract

The Australian Government’s voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) system has potential to provide a user-friendly approach to help shoppers choose healthier packaged food options. However, despite evidence that it is dietary imbalances and excesses that are the predominant causes of diet-related noncommunicable diseases and obesity, the star-rating system’s design is based on a reductionist (nutrient) world view of nutrition science which is not a fit-for-purpose solution to the cause of the problem. As a result, the HSR system frequently is inadvertently contradicting Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG) recommendations, and promoting the marketing of discretionary and ultraprocessed foods. This perspective article looks at how the HSR system could be reformed to complement the ADG and stresses the overriding priority is to position it within, and not be a distraction from, a comprehensive national nutrition policy if dietary risk factors are to be effectively tackled.