PITTSBURGH — Giant Eagle here said Thursday it was rolling out the NuVal nutritional shelf-labeling system to its 25 Central Ohio stores, complemented by color-coded shelf tags highlighting nutritional attributes of the products.
The chain said it is the first Central Ohio retailer to display both the NuVal scores and the additional dietary and nutritional information on the same on-shelf price tag. The color-coded nutritional information tags are based on Food & Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines denoting benefits such as "Heart Healthy" and "Whole Grain."
The NuVal system, which has been adopted by several retailers around the country, scores products from 1 to 100 based on a variety of nutritional attributes. The new price tags, which will apply to "thousands" of food items, feature the NuVal score inside a double honeycomb symbol in the upper right-hand corner, and the actual nutritional benefits of the item at the bottom of the tag.
Some items might have only one or the other type of nutritional indicator, Giant Eagle said.
"The combination of these two systems helps to simplify the sometimes difficult process of identifying the best nutritional choices for our families," said Caroline Whitby, Giant Eagle corporate dietitian and manager of dietitian initiatives.
"The way to think of it is NuVal is the what to choose, the color blocks are the why to choose and the in-store dietitians are there to help you decide how to choose based on your health goals." A spokesman for Giant Eagle told SN the program was being launched initially only at stores in the Columbus, Ohio, and Frederick, Md., markets.