Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data
Front-of-pack labelling (FoPL) aims to promote healthier diets by altering consumer food purchasing behaviour. We quantify the impact of the voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) FoPL adopted by New Zealand (NZ) in 2014, on (i) the quantity of foods purchased by HSR scores and food groups and (ii) the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
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| Series: | BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health |
| Online Access: | https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2022/08/17/bmjnph-2022-000459.full |
| _version_ | 1811339839644106752 |
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| author | Bruce Neal Tony Blakely Cliona Ni Mhurchu Laxman Bablani Christopher L Skeels Kevin E Staub |
| author_facet | Bruce Neal Tony Blakely Cliona Ni Mhurchu Laxman Bablani Christopher L Skeels Kevin E Staub |
| author_sort | Bruce Neal |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Front-of-pack labelling (FoPL) aims to promote healthier diets by altering consumer food purchasing behaviour. We quantify the impact of the voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) FoPL adopted by New Zealand (NZ) in 2014, on (i) the quantity of foods purchased by HSR scores and food groups and (ii) the quantities of different nutrients purchased.We used Nielsen HomeScan household purchasing panel data over 2013–2019, linked to Nutritrack packaged food composition data. Fixed effects analyses were used to estimate the association of HSR with product and nutrient purchasing. We controlled for NZ-wide purchasing trends and potential confounding at the household and product level.In 2019, HSR-labelled products accounted for 24% (2890) of 12 040 products in the dataset and 32% of purchasing volume. Of HSR-labelled products, 1339 (46%) displayed a rating of 4.0–5.0 stars and 556 (19%) displayed a rating of 0.5–2.0 stars.We found little or no association between HSR labelling and the quantities of different foods purchased. Introduction of HSR was, however, associated with lower sodium (−9%, 95% CI −13% to −5%), lower protein (−3%, 95% CI −5% to 0%) and higher fibre (5%, 95% CI 2% to 7%) purchases when purchased products carrying an HSR were compared with the same products prior to introduction of the programme.Robust evidence of HSR labelling changing consumer purchasing behaviour was not observed. The positive effect on nutrient purchasing of HSR-labelled foods likely arises from reformulation of products to achieve a better HSR label. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:33:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b7b1b4c2394f439fb04e0aa075d90492 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2516-5542 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T18:33:32Z |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-b7b1b4c2394f439fb04e0aa075d904922022-12-22T02:35:00ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health2516-554210.1136/bmjnph-2022-000459Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase dataBruce Neal0Tony Blakely1Cliona Ni Mhurchu2Laxman Bablani3Christopher L Skeels4Kevin E Staub51 Faculty of Medicine, The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australiaresearch professor and directorNational Institute for Health Innovation, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New ZealandCentre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaDepartment of Economics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaDepartment of Economics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaFront-of-pack labelling (FoPL) aims to promote healthier diets by altering consumer food purchasing behaviour. We quantify the impact of the voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) FoPL adopted by New Zealand (NZ) in 2014, on (i) the quantity of foods purchased by HSR scores and food groups and (ii) the quantities of different nutrients purchased.We used Nielsen HomeScan household purchasing panel data over 2013–2019, linked to Nutritrack packaged food composition data. Fixed effects analyses were used to estimate the association of HSR with product and nutrient purchasing. We controlled for NZ-wide purchasing trends and potential confounding at the household and product level.In 2019, HSR-labelled products accounted for 24% (2890) of 12 040 products in the dataset and 32% of purchasing volume. Of HSR-labelled products, 1339 (46%) displayed a rating of 4.0–5.0 stars and 556 (19%) displayed a rating of 0.5–2.0 stars.We found little or no association between HSR labelling and the quantities of different foods purchased. Introduction of HSR was, however, associated with lower sodium (−9%, 95% CI −13% to −5%), lower protein (−3%, 95% CI −5% to 0%) and higher fibre (5%, 95% CI 2% to 7%) purchases when purchased products carrying an HSR were compared with the same products prior to introduction of the programme.Robust evidence of HSR labelling changing consumer purchasing behaviour was not observed. The positive effect on nutrient purchasing of HSR-labelled foods likely arises from reformulation of products to achieve a better HSR label.https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2022/08/17/bmjnph-2022-000459.full |
| spellingShingle | Bruce Neal Tony Blakely Cliona Ni Mhurchu Laxman Bablani Christopher L Skeels Kevin E Staub Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health |
| title | Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data |
| title_full | Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data |
| title_fullStr | Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data |
| title_short | Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data |
| title_sort | effect of voluntary health star rating labels on healthier food purchasing in new zealand longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data |
| url | https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/early/2022/08/17/bmjnph-2022-000459.full |
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