Why Parents Can’t Trust Products with the Health Star Rating - and What To Choose Instead!
Don’t Trust the Health Star Rating
The Health Star Rating is designed to help busy parents make healthy choices—but it’s actually doing the opposite!
As a parent, navigating the overwhelming world of children's food products can be a daunting task. Supermarkets are packed with brightly coloured boxes, clever marketing, and labels designed to give us peace of mind. Yet, despite our best efforts to choose healthy options for our kids, many of the products that seem trustworthy and nutritious are anything but. One of the biggest culprits? The Health Star Rating.
What is the Health Star Rating?
Introduced by the Australian government, the Health Star Rating (HSR) was created to help consumers make healthier food choices. It is a self-regulated nutritional rating system that assigns a rating from 0.5 to 5 stars based on the nutritional profile of packaged foods. There is no watchdog to ensure that manufacturers are assigning their products with the correct ratings. It’s designed to compare similar products in a particular category, helping parents to choose between yoghurts, cereals and breakfast bars. It considers both positive nutrients like fibre, protein, and vitamins, as well as negative factors like sugar, sodium, and saturated fat. However, the system has significant flaws. It often overlooks the overall nutritional quality of a product, allowing foods that contain refined sugars, artificial sweeteners, additives, preservatives and other artificial ingredients, and that are low in essential nutrients to receive surprisingly high ratings.
How Processed Foods Get High Health Star Ratings!
One of the most deceptive aspects of the Health Star Rating is that it can give a higher rating to ultra-processed foods fortified with vitamins and minerals. Companies can boost their ratings simply by adding small amounts of nutrients like fibre, calcium, or iron. But this doesn’t make the product inherently healthier. In fact, ultra-processed foods are often stripped of their natural nutrients and fibre and then artificially enhanced to appear nutritious.
For example, Uncle Toby’s Chewy White Choc Chip Muesli Bars have a health star rating of 4-stars, despite being high in sugar and made with highly processed ingredients. Parents see the star rating and think they are choosing a healthy snack for their child’s lunchbox, but they are essentially providing a sugar-filled, processed treat with very little non-refined nutritional value.
What Parents Should Look Out For
As a parent, it’s essential to look beyond the Health Star Rating and the marketing hype to make truly informed choices about what you’re feeding your children. Here are a few tips to help navigate the supermarket aisles more effectively:
Ignore the Health Star Rating: Instead of relying on the HSR, take a moment to read the full nutrition label. Focus on the sugar, sodium, and fibre content, and pay attention to the ingredient list.
Look for Additives and Preservatives: Many products aimed at children contain artificial colours, flavours, and preservatives, which can negatively impact children’s health. Avoid products with long ingredient lists and ingredients with unfamiliar names or numbers. Check out my blog: How to Read Nutrition Labels Like a Pro: A Parent’s Guide!, which will help you to recognise which numbers to avoid.
Don’t Be Fooled by Fortified Foods: Just because a product claims to be “fortified with vitamins and minerals” doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Focus on whole foods that naturally contain the nutrients your child needs.
Watch Out for Hidden Sugars: Sugar often goes by many names—such as dextrose, corn syrup, glucose syrup, and maltodextrin. If sugar (by any name) is one of the first few ingredients, it’s best to avoid the product.
Choose Products with Whole Foods Listed First in the Ingredient List: Look for products that mention real food like whole grains, fruit, legumes, milk, or vegetables in the first few ingredients in the ingredient list. If you see any form of added sugar, refined grains, or vegetable oil in the first three ingredients, put it back on the shelf.
Mandy’s Recommended Swaps
As busy parents, we often don’t have the time to make everything from scratch. That’s why it's crucial to read ingredient labels carefully and choose supermarket products that are free from harmful additives and unnecessary ingredients that can negatively impact our family’s health. Below, you'll find some of our top recommendations for healthier supermarket swaps, along with quick and easy homemade alternatives
Swap for Zooper Doopers
Famous Soda Pops (OK option)
Quick and Easy Homemade Option:
Use any 100% fruit juice, smoothie or even kombucha and make homemade popsicles.
Swap for Up n’ Go
Homemade Smoothies Swap
Supermarket Swap for Milo Muesli Bars
Homemade Muesli Bar Swap
Supermarket Swap for Nutrigrain
Homemade Cereal Swap
Conclusion: Be a Savvy Shopper
As parents, it’s important to be savvy shoppers and not fall for the marketing traps set by food companies. The Health Star Rating, while well-intentioned, is far from foolproof. Trusting it blindly can lead to unhealthy choices for your children. Instead, focus on reading labels, understanding ingredients, and choosing whole, minimally processed foods to ensure your kids are getting the best nutrition possible.
The answers we are given to explain why the Health Star Rating is the way it is, is just not good enough! By staying informed and questioning the marketing hype, you can make smarter choices that support your child’s long-term health. Your role as a gatekeeper in your child's diet is crucial, and with the right knowledge, you can bypass misleading claims and ensure your family is eating truly nutritious food.
Do You Want to Learn More?
In a world filled with misleading marketing claims and hidden additives, it's crucial to arm yourself with the knowledge needed to make smarter food choices for your family. Understanding nutrition labels and recognizing the impact of preservatives like propionates, added sugars, and sodium can be the key to raising healthier, happier kids.
If you’re ready to dive deeper and gain practical tips on how to navigate the supermarket with confidence, I invite you to sign up for my oin my upcoming webinar: Smart Shopping with Mandy: Cut Through the Marketing Hype!
In this workshop, you’ll learn how to:
Spot hidden sugars and harmful additives
Choose the best products for your children’s health
Read labels like a pro
Make easy, nutritious swaps that fit your family's lifestyle
Take the guesswork out of your grocery shopping and join a community of parents committed to improving their children's health through better food choices. Sign up now and take the first step towards smarter, healthier shopping.