Healthy Supermarket Foods?

[Guest guest]

I think this is a great idea and my " hats off " to them

for their effort to simplify how to understand food

product information

As the system is " proprietary " , I cant tell how they

evaluated foods but my guess is, they used USDA

guidelines. When we see what percent of products

passed the evaluation, it gives us insight to how

unhealthy food products today really are. And

considering that these percentages are of foods that

got ANY stars, not just 3 stars, it is more eye

opening.

If ,(and this is an big " if) they rated a similar

amount of products in each category.. on average only

32% of products in each category got a star. If we

eliminate produce.. (which we know is healthy)... and

use the same assumption... on average, only 24% of

products in each category got a star.

Only 1/4 of products in each section were worthy of a

star!!

Or 75% of products in each section are unworthy of

getting even one star by USDA standards.. That is sad.

Thank god I didnt use my rating system.

The below info is cut and pasted from their website.

I emailed them and asked what percent of the products

received 3 stars.

Regards

Jeff

Hannaford Bros. supermarkets says in an effort to

simplify choices for consumers, is using gold-star

shelf tags to mark the healthiest foods. The rating

system is in 150 of its stores in upstate New York and

New England.

Under Hannaford's Guiding Stars program, " healthy "

products are given 1 star, better choices get 2 and

the best are given 3. Foods with no nutritional value

get no stars at all.

Q. How many foods were evaluated?

A. More than 27,000 have been scored to date.

Q. How many products in the store have received Stars?

A. Approximately 23% of the 27,000 analyzed food

products have one or more Stars.

Q. How does a product get a Star?

A. Guiding Stars uses a proprietary rating formula

(patent pending) to credit a food’s score for the

presence of vitamins, minerals, fiber and/or whole

grains and debit a food’s score for the presence of

trans and/or saturated fats, cholesterol, added

sugars, and added sodium. The resulting score

determines whether the item receives 1, 2, 3 or no

Stars.

Q. How many foods in each section of the store get

Stars?

A. The percentages of foods with Stars, by store

section, are as follows:

• 94% of produce

• 55% of cereals

• 43% of seafood

• 24% of meat

• 18% of dairy

• 12% of soups

• 8% of deli

• 5% of bakery