Ministers sign off on star-rating labels for food

Australian health and agriculture ministers have approved a new, voluntary, star-rating system for food packaging, to indicate how healthy products are.

The Health Star Rating system will be made mandatory, if a review after two years finds that voluntary implementation has been unsuccessful. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) would then develop a standard.

The decision has been welcomed by health groups such as Diabetes Australia and the Heart Foundation.

But the Australian Food and Grocery Council, which represents food manufacturers, says it believes there are significant flaws with the star-rating approach, although it says it will continue to play a role in the process to try and resolve those concerns.

"It's disappointing that this announcement has been rushed out to suit a political timeframe rather than awaiting the detailed work that needs to be done," Council chief executive Gary Dawson says.

"There's been no cost-benefit analysis done, even though this is a major regulatory initiative that's going to impose significant costs on industry.

"There's been no detailed research done on whether this will actually achieve the health outcomes and the change in consumer behaviour that the policy makers hope it will."

Consumer advocate group CHOICE disagrees, saying a huge amount of work has already been done to develop a workable and clear system, and that star-ratings are unambiguously good news for shoppers.

The group's food policy advisor, Angela McDougall, says the system was developed in consultation with industry and is designed to replace existing RDI labels. She says that will make food labels much less confusing.

Ms McDougall says a lot of work has been done to ensure the system will give consumers accurate information.

"There's a one-year period to iron out any of the practical issues and write up a code that will oversee the implementation of this, but the bulk of the work has been done on the really tricky issues in this system," she says.

"We have a brilliant system that's essentially ready to go, and CHOICE is just delighted to see that there's been agreement between all the key stakeholders."

Source: ABC News, 14 June 2013