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An investigation of the change in alignment between the Health Star Rating Scheme and the Nova Food Processing Classification System and the Australian Dietary Guidelines
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DOI：10.1017/S1368980026102419.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Objective:Front-of-package labelling informs consumers about the ‘healthiness’ of foods based on different classification schemes. These schemes reflect competing worldviews for assessing a food’s healthiness; represented by nutrient-; food- or diet-based indices. The Health Star Rating scheme (HSR) has been criticised for failing to appropriately score unhealthy products. Updates to the HSR algorithm were implemented over a two-year period from November 2020. This study investigated alignment between a nutrient-based scheme (HSR); food-based scheme (Nova food processing system) and diet-based scheme (Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG)).Setting:Mintel Global New Products DatabaseParticipants:Retail foods displaying HSR launched or updated onto the Australian market between November 2020 and June 2023.Design:Products were categorised according to the ADG and Nova; descriptive statistics performed for each category and proportion displaying HSR ≤ 2·0 and ≥ 2·5 calculated for discretionary foods; five food group foods; ultra-processed foods (UPF) and non-UPF. Agreement between categories obtained by Kappa.Results:Median HSR for UPF and discretionary foods were 3·5 and 2·5; respectively; and 73·7 % of UPF and 58·2 % of discretionary foods displayed HSR ≥ 2·5. Agreement between HSR and Nova was none to slight (k = 0·09; P < 0·001) and HSR and ADG was fair (k = 0·38; P < 0·001). Between 2020–2023; the proportion of UPF displaying HSR ≥ 2·5 increased from 60·2 % to 78·5 % and for discretionary foods 47·0 % to 62·5 %.Conclusion:The HSR algorithm calculates ‘healthy’ HSR (≥ 2·5) for a high proportion of UPF and discretionary foods. The HSR’s nutrient-based approach to translate food-and diet-based nutrition recommendations into accurate food ‘healthiness’ assessments is still problematic.
Keywords:
Front-of-package labelling
Health Star Rating
Ultra-processed foods
Nova
Australian Dietary Guidelines
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