Australian Ready Meals: Does a Higher Health Star Rating Mean Lower Sodium Content?

Abstract

Ready meals are typically a high sodium product and excessive sodium increases the risk for chronic disease. The study aimed to explore the association between sodium content, Health Star Rating (HSR) and the Healthy Food Partnership (HFP) sodium reduction target for ready meals. Median (IQR) sodium content in mg/100 g and mg/serving were determined overall and for each subcategory (ambient, chilled and frozen). Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to compare the sodium content between ready meals with and without HSR. The Jonckheere trend test was used to assess presence of trend in sodium content by HSR categories. In total, 631 ready meals were included and 311 (49%) met the HFP sodium target (p’s p < 0.001). A higher proportion of the products with HSR ≥ 4 met the HFP sodium target for ready meals.

Keywords

• convenience foods
• health star rating
• ready meals
• prepared meals
• sodium content
• consumer education