Election 2023: National MP Dr Shane Reti says he wants to review Health Star Rating for food

(From left): Green MP Ricardo Menendez March, Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall, Act MP Brooke Van Velden, National MP Dr Shane Reti and Te Pāti Māori candidate Lance Norman at a debate hosted by the Heart Foundation today.

The National Party says it may get rid of the Health Star Rating on food items if it is elected.

Health spokesman Dr Shane Reti said today he was unsure what the nutrition rating system could be replaced by, but there were better models being developed overseas that New Zealand could adopt.

“It’s not clear to me anymore that it’s fit for purpose,” Reti said at a political debate in Auckland this afternoon.

“I think the star rating system needs to be looked at. Australia’s starting to move in other directions, and I think we just need to rethink how we make it easy for [consumers] to make the best choice and the right choice.”

The Health Star Rating is voluntary and uses a scale of 0.5 to five stars to rank packaged food on its nutrient profile. It was introduced by the National-led government in 2014 and updated in 2019 to give tougher ratings for foods which were high in salt and sugar.

Reti raised the issue at an election debate on health issues hosted by the Heart Foundation.

Speaking to the Herald after the event, the MP said he had been discussing the issue with health experts including Professor Boyd Swinburn, from the University of Auckland’s School of Population Health.

New Zealand could possibly follow European rating systems, Reti said. Nutrition labelling is mandatory in Europe, and many follow a “Nutri-Score” system which ranks products from A to E - though that has also proven to be divisive among consumers.

Reti was responding to a question by Sir Colin Tukuitonga, a chief adviser to the foundation on Pasifika issues. Sir Colin said there had been a serious decline in the consumption of healthy foods in New Zealand, a trend which had been “aggravated’ by the higher cost of living.

“This is possibly the most important thing we can do to reverse pressure on the health system,” Sir Colin said.

Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall told the audience the cost of living was a significant barrier to eating healthily, and pointed to several Labour policies which would help directly and indirectly, including taking GST off fruit and vegetables, protecting food-producing soils and encouraging competition in the grocery sector.

Verrall also noted Labour’s free dental care policy mandated schools to only have milk or water - which effectively banned sugary drinks.

Green Party health spokesman Ricardo Menendez March said his party wanted to expand the free lunch in schools programme to all schools and crack down on the advertising of sugary foods. Addressing broader issues like high rents and low wages would also assist with affording healthy food, he said.

Aside from Reti’s surprise announcement, the health debate mostly covered familiar territory - workforce shortages, health inequities and the burden of heart disease.

It was a relatively friendly occasion, with few cross-party disagreements or criticisms.

Verrall made one pointed remark about National’s tax plan when discussing how her party would train and retain more doctors.

“If a party has a tax policy that does not add up, you need to ask the question - well, how are you going to pay for the cost pressures that keep everyone’s wages up?” she said.

Asked to respond by the Herald, Reti deferred to his party’s finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis and said he had full confidence in his party’s fiscal numbers.

A common theme among candidates was the need to improve primary care, with several parties promising to either lift or change the way GPs are funded.

Act Party deputy leader Brooke van Velden said her party would raise GPs’ capitation funding by 13 per cent if in power. The Green and Māori parties’ candidates said they wanted to review capitation funding, which did not address social and ethnic inequalities.

“I’m worth $400 in the healthcare system through capitation,” said Te Pāti Māori candidate Lance Norman. “That gets me 2.5 visits, but on average I am going to go six to eight times a year. So I’m uneconomical in the healthcare system.”

“That’s because we look at the cost rather than opportunity cost of presenting to hospital with renal failure, which costs $100,000. So we don’t have an investment approach. We have a ‘let’s wait until there’s a train wreck’ approach.”

Verrall has previously said the Government is reviewing capitation funding, but Labour has not made any promises in this area in its manifesto.

There was a lighter moment when candidates were asked when they last got a full health check-up.

Norman and Mendendez said around six months ago. Reti said a year ago. Brooke Van Velden said she last had her blood pressure checked when the Heart Foundation had an event at Parliament.

Verrall: “I don’t recommend the Minister of Health ever getting their blood pressure checked.”

*The headline on this article was amended on October 17 to clarify that National wants to review - not scrap - the Health Star Rating.

Isaac Davison is an Auckland-based reporter who covers health issues. He joined the Herald in 2008 and has previously covered the environment, politics, and social issues.