Incorporating Added Sugar Improves the Performance of the Health Star Rating Front-of-Pack Labelling System in Australia.

ABSTRACT: The Health Star Rating (HSR) is an interpretive front-of-pack labelling system that rates the overall nutritional profile of packaged foods. The algorithm underpinning the HSR includes total sugar content as one of the components. This has been criticised because intrinsic sugars naturally present in dairy, fruits, and vegetables are treated the same as sugars added during food processing. We assessed whether the HSR could better discriminate between core and discretionary foods by including added sugar in the underlying algorithm. Nutrition information was extracted for 34,135 packaged foods available in The George Institute's Australian FoodSwitch database. Added sugar levels were imputed from food composition databases. Products were classified as 'core' or 'discretionary' based on the

SUBMITTER: Peters SAE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5537816 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature