VG's Health Connection To Cover Recipes

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

LAS VEGAS — VG's Food Centers plans to expand its “Health Connection” nutritional labeling program to encompass its homemade recipes in the next few months, Nick Lenzi, the chain's director of merchandising, told a workshop audience here at the National Grocers Association's annual convention.

The program, launched last May, uses seven “wellness clues” to identify whether items are low-fat, low-sodium, high-fiber, gluten-free, organic, low-sugar or contain allergens — with each attribute in a different-colored circle or dot.

The 17-store Flint, Mich.-based retailer examined 40,000 food items — excluding general merchandise and HBC — to determine their attributes; the labeling system displays all seven “clues” on each shelf tag and checks as many attributes as apply, Lenzi explained. Any items that have three clues checked are also listed as heart-healthy, he added.

“We felt it was critical to be in 100% compliance so customers could trust the integrity of the effort,” Lenzi said.

The program did not initially include items made with VG's recipes, “because we couldn't afford to analyze those 300 to 400 items at the time,” Lenzi said.

VG's will not stock any new items, including DSD items, “unless we get a sample four weeks in advance to make a determination on what wellness clues it qualifies for,” he said.

As for shelf resets by brokers, “we can't have that in this environment,” he pointed out. “We cannot have anyone moving merchandise around and not ensuring that the shelf tags follow the item.”

When the program was launched, VG's had greeters at the doors handing out brochures that encouraged customers to ask questions, Lenzi said. Since then, the chain has installed explanations about the wellness clues on the child seat in its shopping carts, “because we didn't feel signs at the front of the store or brochures or information on our website was enough,” he explained.

The program required VG's to redesign its shelf talkers to incorporate the wellness clues, Lenzi added.

“Health Connection” was inspired by a local hospital that asked if it could lead a tour through a store to show people with various illnesses how to shop, he recalled. The chain now plans to open similar tours to the general public, using the slogan “Connect With the Dots,” Lenzi said.

Mary K. Young, vice president, nutrition, for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said a group called the Nutrient-Rich Foods Coalition plans to introduce a new program March 17 that will rate products on a scale of 1 to 5, based on the amounts of nutrients each contains, in an effort to get consumers to add more nutrients, rather than calories, to their diets.

The program will encourage people to add more protein, fiber, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium and vitamins A, C and E to their diets while limiting saturated fats, sugar and sodium, Young said.