Woolworths has the healthiest home brand among the big four supermarkets, according to the George Institute for Global Health’s annual snapshot of the nation’s packaged food supply. The report suggests more needs to be done to “positively influence” the nation’s food supply.
George Institute researchers followed Health Star Rating (HSR) criteria to rank around 22,000 packaging food and beverage products sold across Australia. A rating of 3.5 and above was considered as healthy.
Researchers found only two in five products in IGA and Aldi own brand ranges were considered healthy, while just over half of Coles’ own brand and 59 per cent of Woolworths’ own brand products met the standard.
Own label brands across the major supermarkets can account four about a third of all products in store, and were included alongside 31 manufactures in the analysis, including names such as Heinz, Nestle and Campbell Arnott’s.
The annual rankings of the included manufacturers are based on the mean HSR of their portfolios in both 2018 and 2019. Overall, the ranks stayed relatively the same with changes in mean HSR scores changing by 0.1.
George Institute accredited practising dietitian Daisy Coyle said as most Australian households are buying food from the major supermarkets, these companies had the power to positively influence the food supply and improve health for all Australians.
“Sadly, we’ve seen little to no improvement in the healthiness of the big four’s own brand ranges in the twelve months since we last conducted this analysis and we know they have the capability to do so much more,” said Coyle.
“Actions that improve the quality of the Australian food supply have the potential to reduce overweight, obesity and premature death and disability amongst millions of Australians. And they have never been more urgent.”
For food and drinks that were classified as ‘ultra-processed’ – products with “industrially produced ingredients like artificial sweeteners, hydrolysed proteins, hydrogenated oils and emulsifiers, and are linked to weight gain, cardiovascular disease and death” – Aldi had two-thirds of its own brand products in this category, while Coles and IGA had just under two-thirds, and Woolworths with 57 per cent.
Researchers also looked at the government’s recently announced Healthy Food Partnership targets for the harmful nutrients, sodium and saturated fat in this year’s report.
Two-thirds of Woolworths’ own brand products met the sodium target, while Coles had 56 per cent, and just under half for Aldi and IGA own products met this target.
Meanwhile, Coles had three-quarters of its product meet the saturated fat target, followed by Woolworths with two-thirds and half of Aldi products.
Coyle said that although the release of reformulation targets in Australia was an important step, more still needs to be done.
“We welcome targets, but these are not likely to have much of an impact when so many products are already meeting them. They need to be stronger and include more product categories to make any real difference to people’s health,” she said.
Other key findings in the report include:
- "The saltiest offender was Goodman Fielder" – with its product range including Helga’s, Twisties and Meadow Lea. Under a quarter of its products met the sodium target.
- McCain – known for convenience foods - had the most products in the categories covered by the target, but almost two thirds failed to meet it.
- The top three healthiest food brands were found to be Sanitarium, Nudie Foods and The A2 Milk Company, all scoring an average Health Star Rating of 4.2.
- At the bottom of the list with an HSR of 1.2 were Bundaberg Brewed Drinks and Frucor Suntory whose portfolio of brands includes V, Ribena and Lucozade.
- The three manufacturers with the lowest proportion of products meeting the sodium targets were George Weston Foods, Simplot and Goodman Fielder, whose compliance ranged from 26.5 to 38.9 percent.
