Critical Analysis of Health Star Rating System Policy-making Process in Australia and New Zealand

TITLE:
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE POLICY-MAKING PROCESS FOR A TOPICAL
FOOD POLICY INTERVENTION.
Case study:
The current policy-making process towards future policy options for the Health Star
Rating system in Australia and New Zealand.
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Introduction
Dietary risk factors are among the leading contributions to the world wide plague of diseases,
(Ericksen 2008). The front-of-pack package labelling (FOPL) policy interventions is currently a
debate in many countries across the world. Some countries have already began to implement the
FOPL interventions that are geared to promoting a healthy food selection and to help in
preventing obesity and non-communicable diseases and complications, (Mintrom&Norman
2009). Whether the technical details are mandatory or voluntary varies from country to country
across the world. This report about the health star rating system involves a case study of the
current policy-making process towards future policy options for the Health Star Rating system in
Australia and New Zealand. The report seeks to capture the scientific uncertainties around food-
packaging policies and the effect that it has on dietary risk factors. This report further seeks to
investigate and analyses worldviews towards the pathogenesis and effect of these policy
interventions to dietary risk factors.
Health Star Rating
The Health Star Rating is a front-of-pack labeling system that is used for the overall profiling of
the nutritional value of packaged food items, (Maubach, Hoek& Mather 2014). It assigns its
rating from half of a star up to five stars. The more the stars, the healthier and safer the packaged
food item is considered to be. This profiling provides a quick and easier way of comparing
similar packaged foods.
Calculation of the Health Star Rating
The number of stars that is included in the informational package is gotten by assessing the
positive and risky nutrients in the food content then doing calculations through a special
calculator (Health Star Rating Calculator) that is designed for the task of determining the star
rating, (Collinson et al 2009). The algorithm behind the calculation was developed by a
conglomerate of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand and other food nutrition experts.
Food manufacturers are required to comply with all the appropriate and relevant legislations and
regulations of the Health Star Rating System, (White & Signal 2012).

Who designed the Health Star Rating system?
This system was developed by the Australian state government in collaboration with the public
health sector and the consumer groups. In 2014, Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum
on Food Regulation (Forum) made an agreement that the Health Star Rating System should be
implemented on a voluntary basis over a timeline period of five years, including a review of the
progress of the process of the implementation over a period of two years, (Smee 2016). In the
year 2015 the members of the review team would later agree that the system of the review should
be rolled out after the five years of implementation.
Description of the scientific evidence for the policy problems of obesity and non-
communicable diseases associated with this case study
Obesity has become one of the issues that are rocked this world into a total mess that has been
considered a global epidemic, (Gortmaker et al 2011). The condition results from a positive
energy imbalance whereby the energy intake from a food item exceeds the energy expenditure.
Scientific research presents that obesity could be reduced by implementing the health star
systems, whereby consumers will be enabled to make health choices.
Its prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases is currently on the rise, according to
the World Health organization (WHO). It has been established that obesity augments the risk of
contracting a number of chronic and non-communicable diseases, (World Health Organization,
2017).
Across the world, Australia has one of the highest rates of obesity. This includes 63% adults,
with one in four children being extremely overweight or obese, (Lluch 2011). Most of the
packaged products usually carry an information panel with the nutrition value of the contents of
the food that they carry. But since shoppers in the 21st century are busy due to the dynamic
societal nature of the day, the Health Star Rating provides a cheaper way to compare similarly
packaged foods and hence helps people to make healthier choices, (Michaels 2009). To allow for
the informed consent of consumers is the major objective of the Health Star Rating System. It
will help consumers to choose foods that are high in positive nutrients ad opposed to health
destroying and risky nutrients that are often associated with dietary related chronic diseases and