The new Health Star Rating, front of pack food labelling system to rate the healthiness of foods has received a major boost after Kellogg Australia announced that it will implement the voluntary Health Star Ratings on its full cereal range across Australia and New Zealand from June 2015.
The move by Kellogg’s comes one month after Uncle Toby’s and Nestl Australia announced that their entire range of 52 cereals will carry the Health Star Rating on pack by April.
And it’s a huge boost to Health Star Ratings’ labelling in grocery and convenience stores, joining seven other brands already using the star ratings on their products, including Sanitarium’s UP&GO and Weet Bix, SPC, and Monster Muesli.
All but five of the cereals will have a Health Star Rating of 4 stars or more while the remaining cereals will carry a Health Star Rating of 3.5, Uncle Toby’s said. “This reflects a long running program to steadily improve the nutritional profile of all our cereals, by reducing the saturated fat, sugar and sodium across our range and increasing the amount of wholegrain and fibre.”
More than 70% of Kellogg’s cereals, or 26 products in the range, have a rating of between 4 and 5 health stars, with the total range spanning 1.5 to 5 stars.
Kellogg’s senior nutrition & regulatory affairs manager Dr Michelle Celander said the company has been working on the implementation of Health Star Ratings since late last year.
We are pleased to be adding Health Stars as another way to help shoppers make informed choices for themselves and their families, alongside other important nutritional information on our packs such as serve size and nutrients per serve, she said.
Kellogg’s All Bran, Sultana Bran, Guardian, Coco Pops and Special K Nourish variants will be the first to carry health stars.
Health Star Ratings will be rolled out by the end of the year across all Kellogg cereals.