The curious case of Milo’s 4.5-star health rating

Milo occupies a special place in the hearts of many Australians, who grew up enthusiastically loading spoonfuls of Nestle’s malt powder into their milk, ice-cream, cereal or mouths. Nevertheless, it’s hardly a health food. Although it’s fortified with vitamins and minerals, almost half of the dry product is sugar.

Yet take a look at its signature green label – above the picture of a healthy child playing sport, plus a list of health claims – and you’ll see it has a 4.5 Health Star Rating. The reason it scores so highly is because its nutritional value has been worked out based on three teaspoons mixed with 200ml of skim milk.

Most Australians don’t drink skim milk (only about 11 per cent do). If you mix the same serve of Milo with 200ml of reduced fat milk, it gets a 3 star rating. And if you eat it straight from the tin, it drops to 1.5 stars.

So context is important and you would need to read the small print to work it out.