Nutritional stars take off

By Terri Coles

TORONTO (Reuters) - A nutritional program that singles out healthier foods using a star-rating system is proving a hit with customers, who have given a thumbs-up to the simple strategy.

The program was developed by Scarborough, Maine-based Hannaford Bros. Co., which runs 160 grocery stores under the Hannaford Supermarket and Hannaford Supermarket and Pharmacy banners.

Hannaford's Guiding Stars program examines nearly all the items sold in its stores and rates healthier choices using a debit and credit formula that provides a weighted average of a food's nutritional value and rates it with stars: one star (good), two stars (better) or three stars (best).

Products that don't qualify for a star once averaged out are left unlabeled. Debits are given for trans fats, saturated fats, cholesterol, added sodium and added sugar, and credits are given for vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and whole grains.

"It's the only one in the country that rates all edible foods," Hannaford spokeswoman Caren Epstein said about the program, which was launched in September 2006.

One year later, sales for starred foods outpace those of similar items without stars, with the most pronounced difference seen in packaged foods like frozen dinners and breakfast cereals.

Hannaford will present the findings of the first year of the program to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at a hearing this week focused on nutritional labelling on food packaging.

A 2007 survey by the International Food Information Council found that Americans increasingly mention healthfulness as a factor in their food decisions -- up to 67 percent from 58 percent in 2006 -- but they are still not fully informed on those choices.

For example, more consumers are now aware of and avoid trans fats, but awareness of the importance of choosing mono- and polyunsaturated fats was down from the previous year.

Several retailers and food manufacturers have developed labeling systems meant to highlight healthier choices for consumers on the front of food packaging. This month, Kraft Foods Inc. is launching a Nutrition At-A-Glance labeling program for breakfast cereals, which will show calories, fat, sodium, sugar and other information, such as dietary fiber, on the front of cereal boxes.

Some health-focused organizations also promote their own programs. The American Heart Association's heart-shaped label with a check mark highlights foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. At the same time, the FDA is paying close attention to foods labeled "sugar-free" that don't meet the requirements for the label or fail to disclose that the food is not low-calorie.

In 2004, when Hannaford asked 3,300 customers about food, confusion about nutrition emerged as a common theme.

"They found that all of the information in the media about good and bad foods was overwhelming, and sometimes it was conflicting," said Epstein. "They found that just the proliferation of symbols on foods was unclear, and they thought that sometimes it might have been self-serving."

Customers reported that even when they read ingredient lists and nutrition labels, they weren't sure what was meant because they didn't know how to interpret the information.

Hannaford assembled a team of nutrition experts -- with representatives from organizations like the World Health Organization, the FDA and the National Academy of Sciences -- to create a set of criteria for rating foods.

Using the Guiding Stars program, the stars are affixed to price tags on store shelves, produce signs, meat, poultry and seafood case signs, and scale labels.

Twenty-eight percent of the 25,000 items scored qualified for a starred rating. In addition to the product's nutrient content, the ratings are based on 100-calorie servings to ensure even comparisons across similar products, Epstein said.

The system isn't meant to compare cookies to fruit, however, and some categories have very few products that earned a star rating. All produce got at least one star under the system, as did half of the cereals, but only 7 percent of soups and bakery items made the cut. Lower fat milk got more stars than whole milk, and leaner cuts of meat fared better than fattier ones. Whole-grain breads got more stars than white bread, while most sugary cereals didn't get any stars at all.

The first-year results show that the program may be increasing sales of starred items.

Packaged food with the starred labels showed an overall increase of sales 2.5 times those without. Sales for starred frozen dinners increased 4.5 times the rate for those of unstarred options, and breakfast cereals with at least one star showed 3.5 times the sales growth of those without.

Starred ground beef sales grew 7 percent, and unstarred sales dropped 5 percent. Similarly, sales of chicken with stars were up 5 percent compared to a 5-percent decrease for unstarred chicken. Whole milk got no stars, and its sales were down 4 percent, while the triple-starred skim milk showed a 1-percent sales increase.

Hannaford has gotten hundreds of customer comments, Epstein said, adding they have been "overwhelmingly positive."

Customers mention the ease of use and lack of calculations as key characteristics that make Guiding Stars appealing. Hannaford believes that simplicity appeals to parents, who can use the program to teach their children about making nutritional choices. She frequently hears one particular anecdote -- a parent telling a child to choose any cereal in the aisle, as long as it has a star.

Foods with less than five calories per serving are not rated because they general don't have nutritional value as defined by the Guiding Stars algorithm. A separate formula for baby foods, based on the nutritional needs of children aged two and younger, will be in Hannaford stores on Sept. 15. Eighty-two percent of baby foods received stars, Epstein said, and most of those got two or three.

The chain is now talking with other supermarkets to see if there is interest in licensing the Guiding Stars, Epstein said. Florida-based Sweetbay Supermarkets, which, like Hannaford, is owned by Belgium's Delhaize Group, is already using the system.