Officials across Australasia have agreed to take steps towards mandating a Health Star Rating system – but New Zealand’s Food Safety Minister says he doesn’t support it.
First introduced in 2014, the system was designed to help consumers make healthy choices by comparing ratings within the same product category.
It was currently voluntary, but uptake from food manufacturers had fallen well short of targets, with the latest data showing ratings were displayed on 39% of products in Australia and 36% in New Zealand.
A majority of Australian state and New Zealand food safety ministers agreed to request a proposal on mandating the system in the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code.
Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chairperson Dr Sally Mackay welcomed the move.
"It’s to help you choose the healthiest product in a range of products and so, if it’s only on a few products, you can’t make that decision," she said.
New Zealand Food Safety Minister Andrew Hoggard couldn’t reveal the vote split but said he didn’t support a mandate.
"Fundamentally, we’re not a Government that’s looking to increase more regulations, we’re looking to do the opposite, and we trust New Zealanders to be able to make informed decisions."
He was also concerned about the impact of a mandate on food prices.
"I'd rather have much more sensible solutions like digital labelling where, you know, companies are able to just change something on a website as opposed to have to change all these actual physical labels, which just adds more cost to food."
A target of 70% compliance by now is instead sitting at a lowly 36%. (Source: 1News)
Consumer NZ researcher Belinda Castles said any repackaging costs shouldn’t be passed onto consumers.
"We know that companies change packaging all the time," she said.
"This mandating has been on the cards for a long time. Industry have been given multiple warnings that if they don't up the intake, then this might happen."
While the latest decision was only a first step towards a mandate, Hoggard said the Government would have other options in the future, such as opting out or adopting a different system for New Zealand.
He said the Government’s position was for it to remain voluntary.
"If there is a customer demand, consumer demand for something, producers, retailers will respond."
Advocates acknowledged the system was not perfect but said mandating it was a necessary first step.
"We all know that there's some anomalies with the Health Star Rating system," said Mackay.
"We really wanted to focus on getting the system mandatory first, but that's the next thing we would like to turn our attention to was how could that algorithm be improved."
Castles said public education and understanding of the system can also be improved.
"I think there are still some people that don't understand how to use it in the context of that complete diet, you know, only comparing it within the same product category."
Food Safety Australia New Zealand will now undertake public consultation, and report back to ministers for a final decision.
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