Guiding Light

CAROL ANGRISANI

What started out as a regional supermarket chain's food rating system is on its way to becoming a national nutrition education tool used not only by other retailers, but also by educational institutions and other markets.

Following on the heels of just-launched partnerships with a school district and college in Maine, Guiding Stars is now rolling out in three dining halls at the University of New Hampshire.

About 1,200 of a planned 4,000 prepared meals, snacks, salad bar and grab-and-go items are being rated according to their nutritional value. Each item receives zero to three stars (best) for an at-a-glance analysis of the food's nutritional content.

UNH hopes to expand the nutritional navigation system to on-campus coffee shops and seven other retail properties by next year, dining director Jon Plodzik told SN.

Guiding Stars Licensing Co., Portland, Maine, is meeting with other colleges and universities around the country to form similar partnerships.

“We plan to expand our footprint in the college market,” said Betts FitzGerald, managing director, GSLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Brussels-based Delhaize, whose banners include Hannaford Bros., Sweetbay, Food Lion and Bloom. The 15-person GSLC spin-off was formed last year to market Guiding Stars to other retailers, as well as to food manufacturers and foodservice operations in schools and other institutions.

The UNH deal follows the first-ever school nutritional rating system that launched in January when the middle school and high school in the Maine School Administrative District in Topsham rolled out Guiding Stars.

Bates College, a liberal arts institution in Maine, followed suit in April. The deal comes as part of a Bates initiative called “Nourishing Body and Mind: Bates Contemplates Food,” designed to raise consciousness about the consequences of food choices.

About 2,500 items are currently being rated in Bates' dining hall and convenience store.

Dining director Christine Schwartz brought in Guiding Stars to help students make educated food choices. Prior to Guiding Stars, she found that most students were making healthy food choices based solely on fat and caloric content.

“I wanted to come up with a system that would help them eat better without being that specific,” Schwartz told SN.

Guiding Stars fit the bill because it utilizes a proprietary database and credits all edible foods based on the presence of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and whole grains, and debits for the presence of trans fat, saturated fats, cholesterol, added sugars and added sodium.

Guiding Stars got its start at Hannaford in 2006, and has since expanded to other Delhaize-owned stores, including Food Lion and Sweetbay.

Once limited to Delhaize-owned retailers, Guiding Stars is now open for licensing by other food stores. The first steps in this effort came in June when Guiding Stars rolled out to three Edwards Family Shop 'n Save units in Hampden, Unity and Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, and the one-store BaySide Shop 'n Save Supermarket in Milbridge, Maine.

BaySide uses Hannaford as its wholesaler, and was impressed with Guiding Stars when it first came out in 2006.

When Delhaize started letting retailers outside Delhaize license the system this year, Carter jumped at the opportunity.

BaySide owner Leola Carter liked the fact that it is simple to use.

“It's easy for the whole family to use, even kids,” Carter said. “If a child is in the cereal aisle, he can easily look at shelf tags and see which brand is healthiest.”

Guiding Stars' ease-of-use was also what got UNH involved, according to Plodzik.

“It's an elementary system,” he said. “People can easily identify good nutrition choices without digging into aspects like fat and calories.”

While pizza and chicken nuggets are still top choices at UNH, more students are making an effort to eat healthful foods.

“This provides guidance they haven't had before,” Plodzik said.

Most of the items rated at UNH are freshly prepared meals, though cereal, snacks and other packaged goods are included as well.

Plodzik anticipates that Guiding Stars will motivate UNH to modify some of its recipes. Take a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast with barbecue sauce — a recipe that, despite being high in protein, received no stars because of its fat and sugar content.

“We'll certainly start looking into why some products don't have a star,” he said.

Colleges pay an undisclosed licensing fee for use of Guiding Stars.

“It's money well spent if we educate people about eating right,” Plodzik said.

GSLC is inking licensing deals in other markets as well.

It recently formed an association with Make Thyme for Dinner, a South Portland, Maine, meal assembly company that provides all the ingredients and lets customers assemble a one-month supply of home-cooked meals in under two hours.

Each month, Make Thyme for Dinner's 16 offered recipes will earn zero, one, two or three stars in accordance with their nutritional value.

Along with partnerships like these, GSLC is making itself known in other ways, including exhibiting at trade shows like the Natural Products Expo, and speaking at events like the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago.

“We make it a point to be out and about,” FitzGerald said. “We want to make this a national brand.”

STAR BUCKS

PORTLAND, Maine — Are consumer packaged goods companies seeing stars?

While Guiding Stars Licensing Co. hasn't formed any licensing deals with national CPG firms yet, it's actively working on it.

“We're reaching out to the big guys,” said Betts FitzGerald, managing director of GSLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Brussels-based Delhaize, formed last year to market the Guiding Stars system.

Such partnerships make sense at a time when health and wellness is such a hot topic in the food industry, FitzGerald said.

In other news, Guiding Stars — already rolling out to private-label packaging at Hannaford Bros. and its sister banners — may soon be featured on store brands outside the Delhaize Group.

That's because GSLC is marketing the rating system to other supermarket chains.