Understanding the Health Star Rating
Health Star Ratings are a quick and easy tool to help you make healthy choices when shopping.
About the Health Star Rating
Health Star Ratings help you compare similar types of foods. You can find them on the front of food labels.
When you’re buying packaged food – like cereal, dairy and canned food – you can use the rating to see which is a healthier choice. Ratings range from 0.5 (half a star) to 5 stars. The more stars, the healthier the choice.
The Health Star Rating does the hard work of comparing nutrients for you. It is based on a system that weighs up healthy and less healthy nutrients in food and drinks to give them a rating.
Find out more about Health Star Ratings.
How to use the Health Star Rating
- Look for Health Star Rating labels on the front of packaged food and drinks when you go shopping.
- Compare similar types of foods. For example, compare one cereal with another cereal, but don’t compare cereal with yoghurt. Remember, the more stars, the healthier the choice.
- Try and choose products with at least 3.5 stars.
Making healthy choices for products without a Health Star Rating
- The Health Star Rating is mostly used on packaged foods and drinks. Fresh fruit and vegetablesare given an automatic 5 star rating. To help keep you and your family healthy, try to fill your shopping trolley with plenty of fruit and vegetables and other foods from the 5 food groups.
- The Health Star Rating system is currently voluntary, that means not all packaged products have a rating. For products without a rating, you can use the free Food Switch app.
- When shopping online you can also review supermarket websites for the Health Star Ratings of products by looking at photos of the packaging.