The George Institute welcomes new Health Star Rating website
The George Institute congratulates the Government on the launch today of the Health Star Rating website to help the food industry implement the Health Star Rating and educate Australians about how it works.
Poor diet is major contributor to obesity and high blood pressure, which in turn lead to strokes, diabetes and heart disease, which are the leading causes of death in Australia.
The Health Star Rating front of pack labelling system is an important milestone in addressing this urgent health priority as it empowers consumers to make informed choices about what they eat and provides an industry standard, according to Dr Elizabeth Dunford of The George Institute and The University of Sydney.
“The Government’s Health Star Rating website provides a foundation for educating the food industry and consumers,” says Dr Dunford, “In September this year we launched our FoodSwitch Stars website, which displays Health Star Ratings for Australian packaged foods, as an additional way to help the public compare products and make healthy food choices.”
“The FoodSwitch Stars website provides Health Star Ratings for over 50,000 supermarket products, provides the energy, saturated fat, sugar and sodium content of products, and provides information about healthier alternative products for shoppers to choose from,” she says.
“Soon shoppers will also be able use the popular FoodSwitch app to choose products using the Health Star Rating system when the Health Stars are incorporated in the app over the next couple of months.”
People who want to see how their favourite foods score using the Health Stars System can go foodswitchstars.com.au today
ABOUT FOODSWITCH
FoodSwitch, an international award winning smartphone app, is currently available in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and is an example of the integral role that medical research can play in helping people all around the world live healthier lives. FoodSwitch allows users to scan the barcode of more than 80,000 packaged food and drink products and receive immediate, easy to understand nutritional information along with suggested similar, healthier products.
To download FoodSwitch visit: https://www.georgeinstitute.org.au/projects/foodswitch
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