Woolworths has launched Healthier Options, a feature on its website that helps online shoppers choose better and healthier choices on almost 3000 grocery items.
The tool aims to make consumers watching their diet to think twice before adding their favourite snack to their virtual cart.
Healthier Options is a new dropdown bar that’s displayed on select product pages on Woolworths.com.au. It presents customers with similar products within a similar price and size range that are considered healthier alternatives based on the Government Health Star Rating system.
Woolworths’ head nutritionist, Stevie Wring, says: “With our innovative Healthier Options tool, customers can quickly and simply consider more nutritious alternatives, while still enjoying the food they love.”
The tool is displayed across various grocery items like cereals and yoghurt, but options aren’t presented on already healthy options like whole foods, fresh fruit or vegetables, in other cases where a higher health rating isn’t available for a particular food product, or where suitable alternatives with a higher health rating aren’t available. Woolworths will only provide Healthier Options with a rating of 3.5 stars or more for discretionary food like chips or chocolate.
Healthier Options is supported by data analysis from digital health start-up Spoon Guru, which compares similar products based on their on-pack Health Star Rating (HSR), or a health rating calculated using the Federal Government’s HSR calculator. The Healthier Options algorithm shows customers similar products with a rating of at least half a star higher than the product selected by the customer, without preferencing specific brands.
With a recent Woolworths survey showing 60 per cent of Australians seek out healthier products for them, this new tool could potentially push popular food brands to measure up and obtain a higher Health Star Rating.
