Don't mess with success. That was the feeling at Sweetbay Supermarket when officials decided to adopt Hannaford Bros.' food nutrition ranking system.
Hannaford in September launched the “guiding stars” program, which assigns from one to three stars — indicating good, better and best — to a variety of fresh and shelf-stable foods deemed high in nutritional attributes. Visible on the shelf tags that contain the price and UPC code, the stars serve as an easy guide for shoppers trying to pick healthful foods.
Hannaford “has had tremendous success with this, so we didn't see a need to change one single thing,” said Nicole LeBeau, spokeswoman for Tampa, Fla.-based Sweetbay, which, like Hannaford, is a division of the Delhaize Group. “It's the same great program.”
Sweetbay rolled out the system in March, and bills it as Florida's first-ever in-store nutrition navigation system. The program involved analyzing more than 27,000 products, including national and store brands. A panel of leading independent, university-based nutrition experts used a proprietary formula to evaluate the information on the product nutrition labels and rank the foods based on a 100-calorie portion. Foods were credited for having vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and whole grains, and debited for trans fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, added sugars and added sodium. Products without stars weren't tested or did not provide enough nutritional value.
At the Hannaford stores, the initiative has had a stellar effect — starred products have seen a boost in sales, LeBeau said.
What is perhaps most interesting about the program is the numbers. Only 23% of the thousands of analyzed products qualified for some kind of star rating. The big winners are in the produce department: 94% of the fruits and vegetables earned stars. In grocery aisles, 55% of cereals are star-worthy. Forty-three percent of the fresh seafood products and 24% of the meat products qualified. Eighteen percent of dairy items, 12% of soups, 8% of deli and 5% of bakery products earned stars.
Pet food, cleaning supplies, cooking oils and other categories are not included in the rankings.
