There are less than two weeks left to have your say about the national Health Star Rating system, with public consultation extended until 17 August.
Part of a planned 5-year review of the system, consultation opened on 8 June this year.
Health Star Rating Advisory Committee chairman Dr Kevin Buckett said there had been strong interest from stakeholders, representing a diverse range of views, but that more data would help.
“While we have already had a good response with feedback to date, it’s important we get a rich supply of data to inform the review,” he said.
“This is why we have decided to extend the consultation period by a further two weeks to ensure we hear from as many key people and organisations as possible.
“This public feedback, combined with stakeholder’s views on the system, will help provide us with an evidence-based, scientific basis for the review.”
The review is intended to consider the objectives of the HSR system and how they were met, and identify any improvement options.
“Matthews Pegg Consulting has recently been engaged as an independent reviewer to conduct the five year review of the HSR system,” Dr Buckett said.
“The findings are expected to be provided to the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (Forum) in mid 2019.”
The Health Star Rating system is a voluntary front-of-pack labelling scheme, intended to help consumers to make healthy dietary choices by rating the overall nutritional profile of packaged food, and assigning it a rating, providing a quick and standardised way to compare retailed packaged foods.