Nikki Kaye said:
Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye announced today that the government adopted a new rating system for food labeling Star Health.
"Cabinet decided earlier this week to New Zealand to adopt this voluntary system, which was developed as part of Australia and the Food Forum of Ministers of New Zealand," says Kaye.
I am in favor for three reasons.
- It is voluntary and not mandatory
- Provision of information, people, so it is to make informed decisions much better way to deal with obesity that trying to ban things
- The star system is more sophisticated than other systems, such as traffic lights that are too easy.
Research has shown the system to identify a positive effect on the ability of consumers healthier food, Kaye said. Absorption will be determined by the company, to take over and select consumer demand.
The new system uses a rating scale rating of ½ to 5 stars and packed with a few exceptions, such as alcohol, is suitable for use in all food products for retail sale. Foods with more stars to be a better nutritional value. The number of stars is determined by an algorithm that takes the overall nutritional value of food.
The way they are calculated:
The rating system in the health system of nutrient profiles used meets the dietary guidelines. The system considers the four aspects of food with increased risk for chronic diseases (energy, saturated fat, sodium and total sugars) and some "positive" aspects of foods such as fruits and vegetables is associated, and in some cases, dietary fiber and protein. Given these elements into account points will be awarded based on the nutrient composition of 100 g or 100 ml, depending on the nutritional information panel (NIP) used by food units.
I can not wait to see how they appear. I found what is in the foods that you buy makes a big difference.
Related posts:
- Herald on food labeling
- NZ Initiative on Food Labelling
- Did you know that the Greens want to ban the most food ads on TV?
- Sausage sizzles saved
