[2] The purpose for the Health Star Rating is to provide a visual comparison of like for like products, to assist consumers into distinguishing and choosing the healthier options.

[6][7] The Australian Government has stated that it has closely followed external input and advice from independent journals and papers to continually improve on the system and resolve problems as they arise.

[13] The Advisory Committee agreed that the review should investigate the impact and status of the social marketing campaigns, summaries of anomaly cases and disputes, government arrangement alterations and suggested activities that might enhance the effectiveness of the system and continue to support its growth.

[14] The National Heart Foundation of Australia was asked to report on the data it had collected over this time and present it as part of the review.

[16] Independent outside consultants have consistently been approached for HSR reviews, to provide a more balanced and less biased view point.

Matthews Pegg Consulting (mpconsulting) was appointed the job of reviewing the HSR and providing feedback on potential areas of improvements in July 2017.

[23] The calculator works via an algorithm that was developed through the consultation of a variety of nutritional and technical experts along with Food Standards Australia New Zealand.

The Guide for Industry for the Health Star Rating Calculator outlines the steps required in evaluating a products score.

The key difference in calculating a score for a dairy product as compared to a non-dairy is the addition of calcium content.

[27][26] The calculator then takes into account health-beneficial ingredients, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes (FVNL) and a variety of more niche contents.

[25] 1 Non-dairy beverage #All dairy foods not in Category 1D or 3D One participating product of the HSR is Sanitarium's Weet-Bix Blends Multi-Grain.

By using the values provided on the Nutritional Information Label which can be found on the products packaging, the HSR Calculator can then be used to verify this score.

The study surmised that this was due to companies using the HSR as a marketing tool or avoiding the system if it displayed a poor rating for their products.

[32] The National Heart Foundation of Australia has continued to monitor and provide reports on the uptake and compliance and found that 92% of the participating products were displaying the correct score, and that the majority of those that were incorrect were actually understating their Health Star Ratings.

Some people took issue with this as they stated that it was a misleading score, where it was ambiguously determined that the rating was based upon 200 mL of skim milk being added for every three teaspoons of Milo.

[33] Public health groups found this to be a method of bypassing the system in order to obtain favourable scores for products which may actually be unhealthy.

"[34] This has led for some to call on the Health Star Rating to be mandatory across all applicable items, to avoid potential distortion of the system.

[34] The Australian Government did not rule out the possibility of introducing a mandatory policy in the future during its initial release but consumer groups are still concerned that the system is performing below its capabilities until this occurs.

[41] Nutrition Australia, an independent health organisation, has been campaigning for greater scope when calculating the scores, particularly where dairy and naturally higher occurring fat products are involved such as avocados.

"[42] Milk is an example of one such product which contains high levels of natural sugars (lactose) but is considered a core part of a healthy diet.