Can we trust health star ratingS?

Firstly, it’s important to know how they come up with the health star rating for each product.

The amount of stars a product has is determined using an algorithm designed to assess nutrients we know increase risk of diet related chronic conditions and offsets them against components of food we know can reduce risk. Products lose points for energy, sodium, saturated fat, sugar and gain points for protein, fibre and fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes.

The number one message I’d say is to not use it to compare products in different food categories. Using it this way can lead to a lot of confusion. For instance olive oil gets 3.5 stars whilst some orange juices gets 5 stars. A salad kit packed full of veg with a yoghurt dressing can have 4 stars whilst a sugar free jam and a no sugar brownie packet mix both get 4.5 stars.

The other issue is that it’s voluntary. I find that products marketed as “healthy” but have hidden salt/sugar/saturated fat are less likely to have a health star rating on there packaging. It also doesn’t differentiate between whole foods and junk foods.

I do however feel it’s useful when comparing food items within categories, if you’re trying to find the best muesli bar or cracker for instance. The benefits of the system is that it provides a quick, easy, standard way to compare similar packaged foods and it encourages companies to improve the nutrient composition of their products to get a better health rating.

Overall I think it’s a worthwhile tool but only use it for comparisons for foods within the same food category.