Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Two voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels (FOPNL) are present in Australia: the government-led Health Star Ratings (HSR) and food industry-led Daily Intake Guide (DIG). Australia’s two largest supermarkets are key supporters of HSR, pledgi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pulker, Claire, Trapp, G., Scott, Jane, Pollard, Christina
Format: Journal Article
Published: MDPI Publishing 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73129
_version_ 1848762931443924992
author Pulker, Claire
Trapp, G.
Scott, Jane
Pollard, Christina
author_facet Pulker, Claire
Trapp, G.
Scott, Jane
Pollard, Christina
author_sort Pulker, Claire
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Two voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels (FOPNL) are present in Australia: the government-led Health Star Ratings (HSR) and food industry-led Daily Intake Guide (DIG). Australia’s two largest supermarkets are key supporters of HSR, pledging uptake on all supermarket own brand foods (SOBF). This study aimed to examine prevalence of FOPNL on SOBF, and alignment with patterns of nutritional quality. Photographic audits of all SOBF present in three large supermarkets were conducted in Perth, Western Australia, in 2017. Foods were classified as nutritious or nutrient-poor based on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGTHE), NOVA level of food processing, and HSR score. Most (81.5%) SOBF featured FOPNL, with only 55.1% displaying HSR. HSR was present on 69.2% of Coles, 54.0% of Woolworths, and none of IGA SOBF. Half (51.3%) of SOBF were classified as nutritious using the AGTHE, but using NOVA, 56.9% were ultra-processed foods. Nutrient-poor and ultra-processed SOBF were more likely than nutritious foods to include HSR, yet many of these foods achieved HSR scores of 2.5 stars or above, implying they were a healthy choice. Supermarkets have a powerful position in the Australian food system, and they could do more to support healthy food selection through responsible FOPNL.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T10:55:24Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-73129
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:55:24Z
publishDate 2018
publisher MDPI Publishing
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-731292021-01-08T07:54:27Z Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective Pulker, Claire Trapp, G. Scott, Jane Pollard, Christina © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Two voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels (FOPNL) are present in Australia: the government-led Health Star Ratings (HSR) and food industry-led Daily Intake Guide (DIG). Australia’s two largest supermarkets are key supporters of HSR, pledging uptake on all supermarket own brand foods (SOBF). This study aimed to examine prevalence of FOPNL on SOBF, and alignment with patterns of nutritional quality. Photographic audits of all SOBF present in three large supermarkets were conducted in Perth, Western Australia, in 2017. Foods were classified as nutritious or nutrient-poor based on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGTHE), NOVA level of food processing, and HSR score. Most (81.5%) SOBF featured FOPNL, with only 55.1% displaying HSR. HSR was present on 69.2% of Coles, 54.0% of Woolworths, and none of IGA SOBF. Half (51.3%) of SOBF were classified as nutritious using the AGTHE, but using NOVA, 56.9% were ultra-processed foods. Nutrient-poor and ultra-processed SOBF were more likely than nutritious foods to include HSR, yet many of these foods achieved HSR scores of 2.5 stars or above, implying they were a healthy choice. Supermarkets have a powerful position in the Australian food system, and they could do more to support healthy food selection through responsible FOPNL. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73129 10.3390/nu10101465 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ MDPI Publishing fulltext
spellingShingle Pulker, Claire
Trapp, G.
Scott, Jane
Pollard, Christina
Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective
title Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective
title_full Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective
title_fullStr Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective
title_full_unstemmed Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective
title_short Alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: An Australian perspective
title_sort alignment of supermarket own brand foods' front-of-pack nutrition labelling with measures of nutritional quality: an australian perspective
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/73129