Consumer research

Research has been undertaken by Food Standards Australia New Zealand to monitor consumer awareness, use, understanding and trust of the HSR system in Australia and New Zealand. The key findings and reports are available below.

Priority populations consumer research 2025

This research focused on priority populations as defined in the Monitoring Framework. These are: populations of low socio-economic status; Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and people from multi-cultural backgrounds in Australia; and Pasifika and Māori people in New Zealand.

Key findings include: 

  • When prompted, the majority of participants were aware of the HSR across all groups in Australia (85 – 95%) and New Zealand (85 – 88%).
  • On average, all groups agreed they trust the HSR, the HSR has a good reputation, the HSR is accurate and honest, and having a HSR on a product increases trust in the food company/product.
  • Most participants across all groups in Australia (69 – 79%) and New Zealand (63 – 70%) correctly identified that the HSR can be used to compare food products that are similar.
  • However, more than half of participants incorrectly chose that the HSR can be used to compare dissimilar products (AU 52 – 72%; NZ 50 – 62%). 

You can read the full report here.

Australia and New Zealand consumer research 2024

In line with the 2024 Health Star Rating Monitoring Plan, Food Standards Australia New Zealand undertook research on consumer understanding and perceptions of the Health Star Rating system. Key findings include:

  • Most participants (89%) were aware of the HSR when prompted
  • Most participants (87%) knew at least a little bit about the system
  • Most participants (78%) understand the HSR can be used to compare similar food products, but there remains significant confusion about using the HSR to compare different foods.
  • Over half of participants trust the system, but around 25% distrust it.
  • Most participants (69%) use the HSR at least sometimes.

You can read the full report here.

Previous research

Consumer monitoring was regularly undertaken during the first five years of implementation of the HSR system (2014-2019). A summary of these findings is included the Five Year Review report, available here.