The number of products displaying the Health Star Rating labels continued to climb in the last quarter of last year, despite the continuing business uncertainty caused by COVID-19.
At December 31, there were a total of 5500 products with the labels. Of those, 2894 were branded products made by FGC member companies. That’s an increase of 107 over the 2787 recorded at the end of September. The remaining 2606 products are supermarket home brands and those of non-FGC members.
FGC Chief Executive Katherine Rich says the continuing increase shows the sector is continuing its hard work to offer consumers more choices and healthier food and beverage products.
“The Government says it wants the food and beverage sector to continue its work on the uptake of Health Stars and reformulation to reduce saturated fats, trans-fats, free sugars and salt/sodium, and that’s what’s been happening.
“It’s great to see companies’ are continuing this work undaunted by the ongoing challenging business environment and the every-present threat of lockdown restrictions.”
FGC monitors industry uptake of member companies and reports each quarter to the Food Safety division of the Ministry for Primary Industries, which monitors the scheme in New Zealand.
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