The Deceitful Health Star Rating System

Introduced in 2014, the Health Star Rating (HSR) system was designed to help Australians make healthier food choices by providing a simple, front-of-pack label rating foods from 0.5 to 5 stars. In theory, it should help consumers quickly compare products and choose the healthiest option. 

But like most public health initiatives, it is a deeply flawed system, heavily influenced by corporate interests, and biased in favour of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Instead of promoting whole, nutrient-dense foods, it allows manipulated and reformulated processed products to appear “healthy”, preying on the ill-informed consumer in a rush, misleading the people it was supposed to help.

Corporate Influence and Manipulation

The HSR didn’t emerge from some noble public health crusade. It was shaped by food industry giants whose priority is profit, not public health. The "advisory committee" behind it included government reps, a token consumer advocate from Nutrition Australia (an NGO with industry ties), and heavy hitters from the New Zealand and Australian Food and Grocery Councils—lobbyists for Big Food. Companies like Sanitarium pushed hard to ensure the rating algorithm favoured their processed products over exposing their flaws. 

Don’t feel like digging into the committee’s dirty laundry? Fair enough. At some point, you don’t need to dissect the "experts"— just look at the results. See for yourself if this system passes the sniff test.

Up & Go Vanilla Ice with a perfect score of 5 stars means the ideal food, right? But should the healthiest food really contain three types of sugar (corn maltodextrin, cane sugar, fructose), two types of industrially produced seed oils (sunflower, canola), vegetable gums and stabilisers?

4 stars for Honey Cheerios - boasting two types of added sugar, vegetable oil, added colours and flavours

This one is hilarious: Coles Brand - Ultra Processed Strawberry Yoghurt with 18 ingredients scores 4 stars, while Coles Brand Greek Yoghurt with 4 ingredients scores 2.5 stars. By adding 3 different sugars, 2 thickeners, 2 stabilisers, 2 acidity regulators, plus colours and flavours, they made the product far more healthy, who would've thought..

The HSR’s fatal flaw is its reductionist approach. It scores foods based on isolated nutrients—sugar, saturated fat, sodium, fibre—while ignoring the degree of processing and overall nutritional quality. This loophole lets manufacturers tweak formulas to game the system, boosting scores without improving real health value.

If you're not suspicious already, browse through the rest of these 4-5 star products and see if they give off those "healthy" vibes.

Gaming the System: How UPFs Win

Ultra-processed food companies have mastered the HSR hustle. By adjusting sugar, fat, or sodium levels, or tossing in synthetic fibres and vitamins, they can inflate ratings without making products more nutritious. A sugary cereal can snag 4 stars by adding artificial fibre, despite being a refined-carb bomb with little real nourishment. Meanwhile, natural foods humans have eaten for millennia—like butter, eggs, or cheese—get dinged for naturally occurring saturated fat, even though no causal evidence links it to negative health outcomes.

The result? A processed breakfast bar laced with synthetic vitamins outranks full-fat yogurt. Rather than steering people toward real nutrition, the HSR funnels them to corporate-backed UPFs disguised as health food. It’s a warped reality where addictive, factory-made junk in plastic wrappers is deemed better than ancestral staples.

The Power of “Health”

Quick: Five stars or one star—which is better?

If you said five, you’ve just cracked the HSR’s deception. That’s the depth of analysis for most consumers: more stars = healthier. Nuance, like the fact that it’s designed to compare similar products (e.g., Up & Go vs. other pre-packed breakfast drinks), not all foods—gets lost. You won’t find that disclaimer in bold on the package. All that matters to the consumer is the star count.

Food marketing thrives on psychological manipulation, and the HSR is a goldmine. The name alone, “Health Star Rating”, is neuro-linguistic programming at work. Slap “health” on a label, and people buy it, no questions asked. Companies exploit this halo effect, where a high rating blinds consumers to a product’s downsides—like being ultra-processed, addictive, and nutrient-poor.

Four or five stars? Must be good.

Critical thinking? Out the window.

Even savvy shoppers get duped. Many assume the HSR is an objective, government-backed tool for public health. In reality, it’s a corporate-influenced system riddled with loopholes. Browse the 4- and 5-star club: do these products scream “healthy” to you or just cleverly reformulated?

The Bottom Line

The HSR doesn’t guide Australians toward better health—it herds them toward ultra-processed profits. It’s a stark message from the authorities we trust: addictive, factory-made concoctions trump the whole foods humans have thrived on for thousands of years. In the end, if it has a health star rating to begin with, it's most likely UPF and humans shouldn't be eating it anyway. Next time you see those stars, don’t just grab and go. Look closer. The system’s not broken—it’s built this way.