What food manufacturers need to know about the HSR system, how it’s calculated, and what’s changing
If you work in food manufacturing in Australia or New Zealand, you’ve seen the Health Star Rating (HSR) on packaged foods. You probably have an opinion on it. And if you’ve been paying attention to the regulatory conversation in early 2026, you’ll know the voluntary era may be ending.
This article covers what the Health Star Rating system is, how it’s calculated, where it falls short, and what food manufacturers should be doing about it now, whether it becomes mandatory or not.
What is the Health Star Rating system?
The Health Star Rating system is a front-of-pack labelling system used in Australia and New Zealand. It rates packaged food products on a scale of 0.5 to 5 stars based on their nutritional profile. More stars means a healthier option when comparing similar products.
The system was jointly developed by the Australian and New Zealand governments in 2014, in consultation with public health experts, the food industry, and consumer groups. It’s managed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and is currently voluntary.
The idea is straightforward: give consumers a quick, standardised way to compare packaged foods at the point of purchase. Research from New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries shows it’s working on that front. When buying a food product for the first time, 83% of shoppers use Health Star Ratings at least some of the time, and 80% say they trust the system.
For food manufacturers, the HSR system has implications that go well beyond the label itself.
How the Health Star Rating is calculated
The HSR algorithm assesses a product’s nutritional value based on two sets of factors.
Risk nutrients (which reduce the rating):
- Energy content (kilojules)
- Saturated fat
- Total sugars
- Sodium
Positive nutrients and ingredients (which increase the rating):
- Fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content (FVNL% and CFV%)
- Dietary fibre
- Protein
The calculation works on a per 100g or per 100mL basis, depending on the product. Each nutrient or ingredient is scored against a set of threshold tables, and the scores are combined to produce a final baseline points value, which maps to the star rating.
There are also category-specific rules. Dairy beverages, plain water, cheese, oils, and a number of other product categories have modified scoring criteria that reflect their unique nutritional profiles. Some products are excluded from the system entirely. Herbs, spices, tea, coffee, infant formula, alcohol and formulated sports foods are not permitted to display a Health Star Rating.
The full algorithm is documented in the Health Star Rating Calculator Guide, published by the Australian Government’s Department of Health and Aged Care. The algorithm was updated in 2020 following a Five Year Review, so if you’re working from pre-2020 resources, your understanding of the scoring may be out of date. It’s not a simple formula, and getting it right matters.
What the algorithm measures and what it doesn’t
The HSR system has its critics and some of the criticism is warranted.
The algorithm assesses overall nutritional profile, but it doesn’t distinguish between added and naturally occurring sugars. A product with high natural sugar content (like a fruit juice) can score lower than you’d expect, while a product with moderate added sugar but low scores on other risk nutrients can come out ahead.
There are well-documented examples of packaged foods scoring higher or lower than consumer expectations. Flavoured milks, breakfast cereals, and processed snack foods have all attracted scrutiny for their ratings.
The system also doesn’t account for the degree of processing. A highly processed product can score the same as a minimally processed one if their nutrient profiles are similar on paper.
None of this means the system is broken. It means it measures what it was designed to measure: a standardised nutritional comparison between similar products. But food manufacturers need to understand the algorithm’s logic, not just its output. When you’re making reformulation decisions based on a target star rating, you need to know exactly which levers you’re pulling and what trade-offs you’re making.
Is the Health Star Rating becoming mandatory for packaged foods?
This is the question every food manufacturer in Australia and New Zealand should be tracking.
Since its introduction in 2014, the HSR has been voluntary. The original target was 70% adoption within five years. That target hasn’t been met. Depending on which study you reference, voluntary uptake sits somewhere between 30% and 50% of eligible packaged foods. There’s also evidence that companies are more likely to display the rating on their higher-scoring products, which raises concerns about selective use. If only the good scores are visible, the system isn’t doing what it was designed to do.
In February 2026, Food Ministers from Australia and New Zealand asked FSANZ to prepare a proposal on mandating the Health Star Rating system. This is a formal step in the regulatory process. It doesn’t mean mandatory HSR is confirmed, but it does mean the conversation has moved from “should we consider it” to “prepare the proposal.”
The FSANZ proposal process typically involves public consultation, impact assessment, and ministerial review. Timelines vary, but food manufacturers should be planning on the assumption that mandatory HSR is a realistic possibility within the next two to three years.
If your products don’t currently carry a Health Star Rating, the time to start generating and reviewing your ratings is now, not when the regulation is gazetted.
Retailer expectations are already ahead of regulation
Even while HSR remains voluntary, the practical reality for many food manufacturers is that it’s effectively required.
Major Australian retailers have been increasingly requesting Health Star Ratings as part of their supplier requirements. Whether this is a formal mandate or a strong expectation depends on the retailer and the product category, but the direction is clear.
If you supply to major retail chains in Australia, your buyer may already be asking for HSR on your packaging. If they’re not asking yet, they likely will be.
This creates a practical gap. The regulation says voluntary. The supply chain says expected. For food manufacturers, the question isn’t really whether to adopt HSR. It’s whether you’re generating your ratings accurately and efficiently, or doing it manually every time a buyer asks.
The HSR system as a product development tool
Here’s where most content about Health Star Ratings stops: it explains the system, outlines the algorithm, and moves on. But for food manufacturers, the most valuable application of HSR isn’t the label. It’s the reformulation insight.
When you have a health star rating calculator built into your formulation workflow, the rating becomes a product development tool, not just a compliance output. You can see exactly how a change in sodium content affects the rating. You can model the impact of substituting one ingredient for another. You can set a target rating and work backwards to find the formulation that achieves it.
This is how product development teams at food manufacturers are using HSR data in practice. They’re not waiting until the formulation is finalised to check the rating. They’re using it throughout the development process to make informed decisions about trade-offs between taste, cost, shelf life, and nutritional profile.
Foodworks Nutrition Labelling calculates Health Star Ratings from your recipe formulations and updates the result in real time as you adjust your ingredients. The rating is displayed in the official graphical format, ready for your packaging. It’s one part of a broader labelling workflow that includes Nutrition Information Panels, allergen statements, and Country of Origin labelling, all generated from the same recipe data.
-> See how Foodworks generates Health Star Ratings from your recipes
Common mistakes when generating Health Star Ratings
If you’re calculating Health Star Ratings manually or using a health star rating calculator tool that wasn’t built for the Australian and New Zealand market, there are several common errors that can lead to inaccurate ratings.
Using the wrong product category. The HSR algorithm applies different scoring criteria to different product categories. Misclassifying your product (for example, treating a dairy beverage as a general beverage) can produce a materially different rating.
Incorrect FVNL% calculation. The fruit, vegetable, nut, and legume percentage is one of the most impactful inputs, and one of the most commonly miscalculated. Dried ingredients, concentrated ingredients, and reconstituted ingredients all have specific rules for how they’re counted.
Not accounting for sub-recipes. If your product contains compound ingredients (a sauce within a meal, for example), the nutritional calculation needs to account for the composition of every sub-recipe. Missing a level of ingredient detail can skew the result.
Relying on outdated data. The HSR algorithm has been updated since its 2014 introduction, and the nutrient data your calculations are based on needs to be current. If you’re working from old specification sheets or stale composition data, your rating may not reflect the actual product.
Not recalculating after reformulation. Any change to your recipe, no matter how small, can affect the Health Star Rating. A supplier substitution, a reformulation for cost optimisation, or a change in ingredient sourcing all need to trigger a recalculation.
These aren’t theoretical risks. An incorrect Health Star Rating on your packaging undermines consumer trust and, if the system becomes mandatory, could result in regulatory action.
What food manufacturers should do now
Whether mandatory HSR arrives in 2027 or 2029, the steps are the same.
Audit your current ratings. If your products already carry Health Star Ratings, verify they’re calculated correctly using current data and the current algorithm. If they were generated manually or with an international tool adapted for the Australian market, check them against a purpose-built health star rating calculator.
Start generating ratings for products that don’t have them. If you’re not currently displaying HSR, begin generating ratings now. This gives your product development and regulatory teams time to review the results, identify any surprises, and plan for reformulations if needed.
Build HSR into your product development workflow. Rather than treating HSR as a post-development checkbox, integrate it into the formulation process. When your team can see the rating update as they adjust a recipe, they make better decisions earlier.
Use labelling software built for this market. International food labelling tools can generate Health Star Ratings, but many require manual configuration to meet Australian and New Zealand requirements. A system built from the ground up for the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code reduces the risk of errors and removes the need for workarounds.
Foodworks Nutrition Labelling was built for exactly this workflow. Health Star Ratings, Nutrition Information Panels, allergen statements, and Country of Origin labels, all generated from your recipe formulations, all compliant with the Food Standards Code.
