The impact of voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labelling on packaged food reformulation: A difference-in-differences analysis of the Australasian Health Star Rating scheme

Author summary Why was this study done? Front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FoPL) systems may lead to reformulation of food to healthier compositions. In December 2014, Australia and New Zealand (NZ) adopted the voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) scheme on packaged food products. We studied whether the HSR was associated with industry-led reformulation. We also determined whether reformulation differed between products that were initially more healthy or unhealthy. What did the researchers do and find? Healthier products are more likely to show HSR scores than unhealthy ones: >35% of products that should have achieved 4 or more stars displayed the label compared to Compared to unlabelled products, products that adopt HSR are 6.5% and 10.7% more likely to increase their HSR by >= 0.5 stars in Australia and NZ, respectively. Labelled products showed a -4.0% [-6.4% to -1.7%] relative decline in sodium content in NZ and -1.4% [-2.7% to -0.0%] decline in Australia. HSR adoption was associated with a -2.3% [-3.7% to -1.0%] change in sugar content in NZ and a statistically insignificant -1.1% [-2.3% to 0.1%] difference in Australia. Initially unhealthy products that adopt HSR increase their rating by more than 0.1 stars. This effect becomes smaller the greater the initial healthiness of the product-a 1-star increase in initial healthiness reduces reformulation by around 0.04 stars. A limitation of our study is that results are not sales weighted. Thus, it is not able to assess changes in food consumption that occur because of HSR-caused reformulation. Also, the voluntary adoption of HSR along with the observational nature of our study may impact the generalisability of our results, e.g., to a setting where such labels were mandatory. What do these findings mean? Overall, the introduction of HSR had a small effect on product reformulation. The voluntary nature of the HSR program lowers effectiveness because labels were mostly placed on already-healthy products. Our results suggest that HSR adoption by unhealthy products should be mandated by governments to maximise reformulation. Background Front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FoPL) of packaged foods can promote healthier diets. Australia and New Zealand (NZ) adopted the voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) scheme in 2014. We studied the impact of voluntary adoption of HSR on food reformulation relative to unlabelled foods and examined differential impacts for more-versus-less healthy foods. Methods and findings Annual nutrition information panel data were collected for nonseasonal packaged foods sold in major supermarkets in Auckland from 2013 to 2019 and in Sydney from 2014 to 2018. The analysis sample covered 58,905 unique products over 14 major food groups. We used a difference-in-differences design to estimate reformulation associated with HSR adoption. Healthier products adopted HSR more than unhealthy products: >35% of products that achieved 4 or more stars displayed the label compared to <15% of products that achieved 2 stars or less. Products that adopted HSR were 6.5% and 10.7% more likely to increase their rating by >= 0.5 stars in Australia and NZ, respectively. Labelled products showed a -4.0% [95% confidence interval (CI): -6.4% to -1.7%, p = 0.001] relative decline in sodium content in NZ, and there was a -1.4% [95% CI: -2.7% to -0.0%, p = 0.045] sodium change in Australia. HSR adoption was associated with a -2.3% [-3.7% to -0.9%, p = 0.001] change in sugar content in NZ and a statistically insignificant -1.1% [-2.3% to 0.1%, p = 0.061] difference in Australia. Initially unhealthy products showed larger reformulation effects when adopting HSR than healthier products. No evidence of a change in protein or saturated fat content was observed. A limitation of our study is that results are not sales weighted. Thus, it is not able to assess changes in overall nutrient consumption that occur because of HSR-caused reformulation. Also, participation into labelling and reformulation is jointly determined by producers in this observational study, impacting its generalisability to settings with mandatory labelling. Conclusions In this study, we observed that reformulation changes following voluntary HSR labelling are small, but greater for initially unhealthy products. Initially unhealthy foods were, however, less likely to adopt HSR. Our results, therefore, suggest that mandatory labelling has the greatest potential for improving the healthiness of packaged foods.