Intended products

What are the intended foods?

Foods intended to carry the Health Star Rating system are those that:

  • Are permitted to use the system 
  • Are required by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Code (Code) to have a nutrition information panel (NIP) 
  • Can vary in nutritional composition.

Foods are comparable and therefore should be included in the scope of the Health Star Rating if both:

  • The composition of the food can be varied, within regulatory constraints, to yield different foods
  • A profiling mechanism exists in the Health Star Rating system to detect compositional variation in those foods and rank them nutritionally.

Foods considered to vary in nutritional composition are:

  • Individual foods that have a nutrient composition that can be altered (multi-ingredient processed packaged foods)
  • Foods where similar products can vary in nutritional composition (for example, foods such as flour and oils).

Based on the above definition, foods such as flours and cooking oils are intended to carry the Health Star Rating. These foods are not exempt from carrying a nutrition information panel and can vary in nutritional content across similar products. E.g. wholemeal flour vs plain flour or sunflower vs olive oil vs coconut oil. Eggs, sugar and baking powder must carry a nutrition information panel, but are not intended to carry the Health Star Rating, as their composition does not vary significantly across products. 

What are the permitted foods?

While the Health Star Rating system is not intended to be used on some foods, these products are not explicitly excluded from using the system. For example, unpackaged foods and foods not required to carry a nutrition information panel are permitted.

The below products are not required to carry a nutrition information panel and are permitted foods, but are not intended for the Health Star Rating system:

  • Plain packaged water
  • Fresh and some packaged fruits and vegetables. 

Although permitted foods can use the Health Star Rating system, uptake in these categories does not count towards official Health Star Rating uptake monitoring targets.

What are the excluded foods? 

Some products are excluded from the Health Star Rating system.

Specific products that must not display the Health Star Rating system graphic include:

  • Certain Special Purpose Foods in Part 2.9 of the Code where there are required compositional formulations, specifically:
    • Infant formula products – Standard 2.9.1 of the Code
    • Food for infants – Standard 2.9.2 of the Code
    • Formulated Supplementary Foods for young children – Standard 2.9.3 Division 4 of the Code (including toddler milks and formulated supplementary foods intended for young children)
    • Formulated Supplementary Sports Foods – Standard 2.9.4 of the Code
    • Foods for Special Medical Purposes – Standard 2.9.5 of the Code.
  • Alcoholic beverages (>0.5% alcohol by volume)
  • Beverages that:
    • Contain less than or equal to 0.5% alcohol by volume
    • Resemble an alcoholic beverage (in look and/or taste) 
    • Are marketed as a non-alcoholic variant or brand extension of an alcoholic beverage. This includes, but is not limited to, beverages labelled and advertised as ‘alcohol-free’, ‘non-alcoholic’, ‘zero alcohol’, ‘de-alcoholised’ and ‘alcohol removed’.
  • Alcohol kits
  • Kava.

Products ineligible to carry nutrition content claims and health claims, as listed in Standard 1.2.7 of the Code, should not display the Health Star Rating system. This includes products: 

  • Intended for further processing or labelled prior to retail sale 
  • Delivered to a vulnerable person by a delivered meal organisation
  • Provided as an institutional meal