Assistant Minister for Health Fiona Nash said she is extremely pleased with the uptake of the Health Star Rating system.
Yesterday (21 April), Kellogg’s announced its 37 products will soon display the Health Star Rating on the front of the pack.
Kellogg’s joins other cereal companies including Monster Health Foods Company, Food for Health, Goodness Superfoods, Freedom Foods, Greens General Foods (Lowan Wholefoods), Sanitarium, Coles home brand, Woolworths ‘Macro’ brand and Nestle/Uncle Toby’s.
“The Health Star Rating system continues to power ahead with the vast majority of breakfast cereals now set to display the health stars,” Minister Fiona Nash said.
“I’m pleased the system is being adopted by more and more companies and appearing on more and more products. The Health Star Rating system is giving consumers’ choice, with the chance to make fast, accurate judgements on the nutritional content of packaged food.
“I’m extremely pleased with the uptake of the system and the number of products now displaying Health Star Ratings.”
The first Kellogg’s cereals to carry Health Stars will be in stores from June, with all Kellogg’s cereals carrying Health Stars by the end of 2015.
Health Star Rating information for all Kellogg’s cereals is already available on the company’s website.
The Health Star Rating is a front-of-pack labelling system that rates the overall nutritional profile of packaged food and assigns it a rating from ½ a star to 5 stars. It provides a quick, easy, standard way to compare similar packaged foods.
The number of stars is based on energy, nutrients such as saturated fat, sugars, sodium and protein, and the fruit and vegetable content.
The voluntary system was designed by Australian and state and territory governments in collaboration with industry, public health and consumer groups.