Background:
Australia have codes of practice for the labelling of food and beverages that aim to guide consumers in the choices they make. One example is the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code on Nutrition, Health and Related Claims that regulate the use of health and nutrition claims. Another example is the voluntary Health Star Rating system that provides an interpretative front-of-pack scheme indicating which products among categories are the least and most healthy options. As these codes aim to assist healthy choices, it is important to know how they appear on unhealthy food and beverages. The objective of this study was to measure the presence of health and nutrition claims and health star ratings on ready-to-drink beverages containing sugar.
Methods:
We conducted a label audit of 631 ready-to-drink (≤600ml) sugary beverage labels during September to November 2016 in 17 South Australian supermarkets. We recorded the presence of a star rating in accordance with the Health Star Rating system and Health and Nutrient Content Claims in accordance with the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code on Nutrition, Health and Related claims. The sugar content of beverages was also recorded.
Findings:
Health Claims were present on 5.1% of ready-to-drink sugary beverages and Nutrient Content Claims were present on 58.0%. Beverages using Nutrient Content Claims were often high in sugar. Health Star Ratings were present on 7.8% of ready-to-drink sugary beverages (n=49) with the majority displaying a 5 star rating (the highest rating score). Of those with a Health Star Rating (n=49), almost all were 100% juices (n=45) which contained a large amount of free sugar.
Conclusion:
The high use of Nutrient Content Claims and Health Star Ratings position certain beverages, particularly juices, as healthy options despite their high sugar content.